Hell
by LuvversLuvvie
Summary: "You haven't experienced hell unless you've been in MY mind." Sasuke Uchiha was confident that no one would understand his darkness, until he meets a tortured blonde who shows him the light. SasuNaru.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Summary: "You haven't experienced hell unless you've been in MY mind." Sasuke Uchiha was confident that no one would understand his darkness, until he meets a tortured blonde who shows him the light.**

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Sasuke Uchiha stared obstinately at the wall in front of him; staring past where the 'psychiatrist' his fucker of a brother sent him to was supposed to sit.

He didn't want to be there. He knew it. Itachi knew it. Hell, even the 'psychiatrist' probably knew it. Yet there he was.

He was missing Suigetsu's band practice for this lame-ass 'appointment'. He was forced to trade black metal for fucking elevator music.

He didn't want to listen to some 'psychiatrist' rattle off some lame and useless ways for him and Itachi to 'connect'. He didn't want to 'open up' or talk about 'what has changed'. He didn't want to sit in that 'cheery' room obviously decorated by children. He just didn't want to be there.

He just wanted to go to the band practice and make Itachi just leave him alone.

His life was totally fine!

Sasuke may not get the best grades anymore, but he did enough work to pass. He was never social, so he didn't see much of a change there. He used to wear the clothes his mother had bought for him, but since that was no longer required; he chose to wear more accessories and darker clothes than before. He used to only listen to his iPod, but now when needed; he offered Suigetsu's band the garage. He used to be compliant, but now be had little reason to.

He had always been like this. The only difference was that now it was out in the open. He had no reason to hide.

Sasuke knew exactly what had 'changed' in his life that made him like 'this'.

What had changed was that his parents were murdered.

He didn't need some self-righteous 'psychiatrist' telling him the same thing the school 'councilor' and the other 'psychologist' had told him about 'fixing things in his life'. All that was shit. There were differences, but slight.

The school councilor had thankfully given up bothering Sasuke after he agreed to do enough effort to pass his classes and to not cause any more disruptions in class.

The 'psychologist' was only interested in the Uchiha's wealth. So he had promised Itachi that he'd 'cure' Sasuke…for a hefty sum. Sasuke never said anything to him. So he spouted off some useless advice on how Itachi could 'handle' Sasuke. Luckily after a couple of sessions, Itachi had figured out the truth and Sasuke was freed of the pompous narcissist.

Sasuke thought that he was free from this torture and that his brother was finally leaving him alone, but no; here he was. At some mental hospital. In some 'prestigious psychiatrist's' office. But not his work office, where he does his paperwork and meet with peers and potential clients. No. Sasuke wasn't good enough for that. No. Sasuke was stuck in that office where he meets his patients. Like a child.

Well Sasuke was no child. He did not belong in a room with bright balloons painted on the walls; some by children by the looks of it.

He didn't belong there. He had no 'problem'. He knew his inner darkness and he accepted it.

Sasuke didn't have a problem 'connecting'. He knew who his friends were because they accepted his darkness.

These fuckers had no idea, so he didn't bother with them. They would claim to know, but they had no idea. No one understood.

His friend had an idea of his hell, but they didn't truly know. But they accepted that they wouldn't know and never bothered him about what kind of hell he lives in. They had an unspoken agreement: he didn't bother them about their lives and they didn't bother him about his.

Unfortunately, it did not look like he could achieve the same deal with this annoying-as-hell 'psychiatrist' who had yet to show up to their appointment.

But as long as he was here, he might as well waste his brother's money.

While he sat there—not caring that the 'psychiatrist' wasn't there because he'd just ignore him—he mused about different ways to help out Suigetsu's band. They were decent; had a good sound and got their message across—but there was no finisher. There was no gag or special effect that made them truly stand out.

There were other bands that had members of the band 'cut' themselves with fake knives dripping fake blood. Some bands pulled stunts that made the audience believe they were truly injuring themselves. A few bands had awesome lighting and tech crews. Some bands had the most wicked props that seemed so simple that competing bands couldn't believe they didn't think of until it was too late; there was an unspoken rule that no band is allowed to pull a copy-cat.

Suigetsu's band had good special effects, but so far nothing that truly stood out. Sasuke had volunteered to help think of something because he hung out at nearly every practice and was an unofficial honorary member of the band. Sasuke approved of this status because it gave him the freedom to choose when he wanted to hang backstage while the band performed or to listen with the crowd—he rarely chose to do so, but it was nice to have the option.

During the midst of his musings, the 'psychiatrist' walked in.

Sasuke didn't bother to look up, though he did scrutinize the other through his peripheral vision. The 'psychiatrist' didn't look like any other therapist he had worked with; he seemed visibly lazy. The man had silver hair, seemingly defying gravity and spiking up, though a good chunk covered his left eye. Not that the hair did much because the man had an eye patch covering the eye the hair was somewhat covering. While the man _was_ wearing a typical doctor's coat, it seemed to be worn in a leisurely way to seem 'professional' while wearing a simple black turtleneck shirt with black sweatpants. The man was even wearing a black mask over the lower half of his face!

Not that Sasuke cared.

Sasuke simply stared ahead; ignoring the man who sat at the side of the rectangular table they were sitting at.

The man sighed, and pulled out a pad of paper and an orange book and placed them on the table.

If Sasuke had cared, he might have looked to see what the book was or even at the man himself. But he didn't care. So Sasuke stared ahead at the wall like he had been before.

"So Sasuke," the man drawled, sounding serious but as if he was slightly bored.

Sasuke didn't respond; he didn't look towards the man. He did not give any indication that he had heard him. He just continued to stare ahead.

The man wasn't deterred, "Just answer me this: do you want to be here?"

Sasuke almost reacted. He came very close to saying 'No shit' and be done with the 'psychiatrist'—if the man was even one. But he didn't. He just continued to ignore him.

"I see." The man said. He didn't sound disappointed, nor was he excited. He sounded like he had expected Sasuke to ignore him and wasn't bothered by it.

In Sasuke's peripheral vision, he saw the 'psychiatrist' pick up the orange book and begin to read it. For a brief moment, Sasuke was tempted to see what the book was, but quickly squashed the desire. It was a trick; a ploy. The man was obviously bluffing! He was probably reading Sasuke's file and about to spout some useless shit about Sasuke's life that Sasuke already knew and collect the reward money for making Sasuke 'open up'.

Sasuke refused to play the man's game. He continued to stare forwards.

There was no clock in the room, and phones were supposed to be turned off if not put away. But as a small act of rebellion, Sasuke had kept his phone on; though he would not take it out. He wanted to check the time on his phone, but he refused to crack. The man hadn't moved other than turn the pages in his book so neither would Sasuke.

He tried to focus on the band practice later in the week, but his thoughts kept straying to the man. What kind of shit was he playing at? He was probably playing the Uchihas for their money like the last one had, but without having to deal with Sasuke.

Sasuke decided that he would tell Itachi. He didn't usually talk to him anymore, but he figured that Itachi should know that this time it wasn't _Sasuke_ who was wasting the Uchiha fortune left to the two of them.

After what seemed like hours, a beeping went off, like a small alarm.

Not being prepared for such a sound to break through the silence so suddenly; Sasuke jumped. He inwardly cursed at himself for showing a form of weakness to the 'psychiatrist' who had barely reacted to the beeping.

The man calmly put down the book—cover faced down—and reached into his pocket to reveal a cell phone that was the source of the beeping.

Sasuke was a little pissed. Patients weren't allowed to have cell phones, so why could the 'psychiatrist'?

The man opened the phone and pressed a button and the beeping stopped. So it was a phone alarm.

"Well, that was the hour. Seeya Wednesday, kiddo." The man said disinterestedly.

**HELL**

Itachi Uchiha waited patiently in the lobby of the Konoha Godaime Hokage Mental Hospital. It was a nice, separate building from Konoha's Hokage Hospital dedicated to mostly the recovery of those with mental issues. It also served as Konoha's main rehab center.

This place had all of Konoha's best psychiatrists and psychologists, all dedicated to their patients and clients. This was also where Itachi had hoped to repair his broken relationship with his little brother.

Ever since their parents had died, Sasuke had closed himself off almost completely. He no longer listened to authority figures, sometimes trying to pick fights with them. He also started to hang out exclusively with the wrong sort of people; bad influences.

At first, Itachi had thought that it was a phase; one that Sasuke would grow out of quickly. Itachi had made little effort in controlling his little brother's actions, apart from lecturing him about his little brother's obvious distaste for authority figures. He figured that Sasuke needed the outlet to grieve for his parents and to simply rebel.

Itachi couldn't find it in himself to blame his little brother for that. After all, he himself had gone through that phase not too long ago. He had joined a gang—Akatsuki—and had gotten himself in and out of many problems. But it ended immediately after their parents had died because he knew Sasuke needed him…

…and because he blamed himself for his parents' deaths…

For a while, Itachi indulged Sasuke in his desire to deal with things alone. If he was being honest, Itachi would admit that he did not leave Sasuke alone because of some transcendent wisdom into is younger brother's desires, but rather so that he could take care of business by himself.

Itachi had spent the first few months dealing with the family business; designating himself the overall owner and CEO of Uchiha Corp but hiring a new temporary president and other staff to make up for the gap left by his father. He also named himself Sasuke's legal guardian and took control of any Uchiha assets.

For the next several months, he devoted his time to taking down the Akatsuki from within. He blamed himself for his parent's death, but mostly blamed his involvement with the Akatsuki and vowed on his parents' graves that he would bring the gang to justice.

Because of his key involvement in taking down the Akatsuki, the authorities had given Itachi immunity for his crimes while an acting member of the gang. He himself had never killed anyone directly so he felt little guilt over making the deal. Overall, he was thankful for it because that made it easier to hide everything from his little brother.

After the Akatsuki was properly taken to justice, he went back to running Uchiha Corp—taking the job as president, but hiring the temporary man as a vice president—and paying more attention to Sasuke.

He knew that Sasuke hated to be smothered, so Itachi mainly helped from the sidelines; talking authority figures out of severely punishing Sasuke, apologizing to those his baby brother might have offended, giving Sasuke general boundaries that were safe for Sasuke to rebel against so his little brother wouldn't go out of control. Little things.

But after an entire year of dealing with this new version of his baby brother—gothic clothing, multiple piercings, eyeliner, death metal, though thankfully no drugs to Itachi's knowledge—Itachi knew that he had to take initiative.

He had forced Sasuke into the meeting with the school counselor. He knew how much it annoyed Sasuke so he felt that it would suffice as punishment and he wouldn't have to do much more in that department.

For a little while, he thought it had worked. Sasuke's grades had gone up, he was no longer causing fights during classes, and he wasn't constantly bucking out against Itachi. But Itachi could tell that it had done nothing to help; Sasuke was only doing those things to avoid the counselor.

Itachi knew Sasuke needed more help than what Itachi could give, so he had sent Sasuke to a well-decorated private psychologist in the hopes that Sasuke would come to learn that he wasn't alone and that Itachi was there for him when he needed it. But after a few sessions of hearing the same things from the old windbag, Itachi soon discovered ulterior motives that involved dollar signs, so he fired him.

Itachi then tried to take a more active role in Sasuke's life, doing what he thought a parent would do; but that had only seemed to push Sasuke further away.

Then he remembered Kakashi, whom he had spoken to on occasion. That man had known Itachi before, during, and after his rebellion and had never judged him. Itachi remembered the aloof man mentioning he worked at Konoha Godaime Hokage and decided to pay him a visit to ask about Sasuke.

The meeting had been brief—as they always were—and ended with Kakashi taking Sasuke as his patient.

They had agreed that Sasuke would meet with Kakashi every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after school. Kakashi had mentioned to him that his methods were sometimes unusual but promised results. He warned Itachi that Sasuke might not agree with them, but had asked for Itachi to trust him.

Itachi looked up when he heard doors opening followed by the distinct sounds of the chains on Sasuke's pants as he walked towards Itachi.

Sasuke had walked towards him. Itachi, expecting his little brother to simply ignore him, offered a quiet "Let's go," before turning to leave. He had taken a few steps but did not hear the chains of Sasuke's pants and turned around in a slight surprise, though it did not show on his face. He had expected his little brother to be striding past him in an effort to leave the mental hospital as soon as he could, not for his little brother to have stayed where he was.

"Is something wrong?" Itachi asked, his voice not allowing the extent of his curiosity to leak through.

Sasuke's black eyes locked with Itachi's gray eyes, "You're being played." His baby brother deadpanned.

"Excuse me?" Itachi was slightly confused.

"That 'psychiatrist'" Sasuke's discontent over the term was obvious only to those who knew him well like Itachi, "is playing you. He's wasting the money."

"He is?" Itachi played dumb, but inwardly remembered Kakashi's description of his methods.

"Hn. He didn't say a word all session. He just read a book."

"Is that so." Itachi calmly replied, turning around to walk out of the hospital and back to the car. This time, he heard the chains on Sasuke's pants, telling him that his little brother was following.

"So you admit I don't need that loser?" Sasuke asked, his excitement well hidden at the prospect of not having to attend more meetings with Kakashi.

Itachi didn't retort about not calling Kakashi a 'loser' since that would get him nowhere. Instead, he chose to lightly tease his brother with the truth, "No, you're still going to see him on Wednesday."

He heard Sasuke grit his teeth in annoyance behind him as the two made their way to the car.

**HELL**

It was after school and Sasuke was in his favorite spot: on the balcony inside the abandoned warehouse where Suigetsu's band played. It had taken them quite a few fights to claim their territory, but it was irrefutably theirs now.

Sasuke smirked as he listened to Suigetsu screaming into the microphone. They had a running bimonthly bet between the other band members and himself as to when Suigetsu would lose his voice again. Jugo, the drummer, only had tomorrow left on his bet. The bassist, Karin, only had until the end of the week. Sasuke was betting on next week right after the actual show. He knew that Suigetsu knew how to hold back when needed; it was only when practicing a new song did he forget himself. Luckily for Sasuke, this set was a combination of remixed old songs that they mashed together.

Of course, only Sasuke and one another were allowed to call each other by their real names off stage. On stage, they went by their chosen names. Suigetsu named himself SlashingPain. Karin renamed herself HellFire, and Jugo was simple The Demon.

Their band, Hebi, was good. They were one of the only bands in town with a female bassist, but that did not add much to their spark. Their band was true to the music and refused to go commercial. They played because the message needed to be set free through music, not because of the fame.

But the fame did help, though. While they did not aim for the fame, they did aim to be the best and beat rival bands. It pained them to admit it, but the message of the music could only go so far. They needed a new pitch because they were losing out to other competing bands who had the nerve to do their shows on the same night as Hebi.

"No, HellFire! LOUDER! And with more fear!" Suigetsu admonished after Karin had screamed at the end of one of their songs. He and Jugo had agreed that Karin screaming before and after the song would give it an edge, but so far Karin's screams had sounded similar to her singing scream in other songs.

"What are you talking about? My scream went perfectly with the music!" Karin defended.

"But that wasn't what we asked!" Suigetsu angrily reminded.

"What?" Karin demanded.

"The song needs a truly terrified scream! Not a musical scream!"

The two continued to argue until Jugo suggested that they rehearse the song again.

Compared to other bands, Hebi was musically equal if not better, but some other bands just had that clincher; that lightning that made them stand out to others. Once Hebi found their spark, then they'd definitely be on top.

Sasuke had tried for the past few days to think of this spark, but came up empty every time. It annoyed him, so listening to the band play familiar songs was soothing, despite how loud they were.

He had suggested a couple of days ago that if they could encompass a true feeling of fear, then that could be their clincher. He had heard enough of those 'therapists' try to analyze his 'obsession with fear' to know that the feeling spreads fast and it almost automatically induces some sort of adrenaline rush when someone sees/hears someone else experience true fear.

So they decided that Karin would open and close their best song with a terrified scream, but so far she had yet to do much other than make the unsuspecting jump. It was shocking, but not horrified.

Once the song had finished with a particularly shrill guitar screech harmonizing with Karin's scream, the Uchiha heard Suigetsu calling for him. He sighed and made his way down the fire escape so he could go to the stage.

"Hn?" Sasuke asked, not feeling the need to waste words.

"Any ideas yet?" Suigetsu asked. It had become a ritual; the band would practice, they would brainstorm ways to make the show better, then they'd hang out until they got hungry enough to bother to go home.

Sasuke simply shook his head to show that he hadn't. None of the band members seemed surprised or too disappointed. If someone had thought of an idea, they would have said so already.

The band members jumped off stage. Suigetsu handed his guitar to Sasuke before joining the others to go up to the old office in the warehouse. The four of them had made the office into their safe haven, even going so far as to bring coolers inside for food and lanterns for when it got too dark. Of course, the warehouse had electricity the city had either forgotten or didn't care about their warehouse, but they reserved it for the lower floor.

The band members left to take off the extra accessories and makeup they wore during band practices and performances in their respective corners of the office. Sasuke, however, stayed by the stage and started playing Suigetsu's guitar. He was pretty good, but refused to join the band officially. He never wanted to be in the flashing spotlight, but rather a large part behind of it.

Before his parents were murdered, his life was under a strict spotlight. Perfection was expected of him as well as for him to willingly accept the spotlight in a professional flourish.

But now, he appreciated being able to refuse the spotlight. He was still expected to be perfect and to come up with all the answers—like with the band's missing spark—but the scrutiny and consequences were far less severe.

Still, he had been trained in classical music and still—secretly—enjoyed playing some classical songs every once in a while; it was his secret about how much he enjoyed doing so. So he felt like he'd be betraying the core of one of the many things their group rebelled against so he refused to perform. Sometimes he'd fill in if a member was late or absent for practice, but never a performance.

His fingers ghosted over the strings in familiar movements, though never stroking the strings. This was his secret and he kept it well.

"Yo, Sasuke! You comin'?" Suigetsu shouted out of the broken window to the stage.

Sasuke didn't bother to nod, he knew Suigetsu wasn't paying attention. He calmly put the guitar down and headed upstairs to the office.

After he sat down, Karin decided that was the best time for an impromptu interrogation/reminder about why he hates fangirls; even the ones he could occasionally stand like the bassist across from him flashing him her cleavage that was practically popping out of the leather corset she wore.

"So Sasuke, where were you yesterday?" she asked, trying to sound casually uncaring but failed to do so because of her piercing gaze through her flashing glasses.

Sasuke repressed a sigh. He had sent a text for Suigetsu to not expect him so that should have been enough. But no. He knew he wouldn't get out of the interrogation, so he might as well vent.

"Fucking 'psychiatrist'." Sasuke growled, letting the others know exactly how he felt about it.

Suigetsu understood the tedious and monotonous questionings of narcissistic 'therapists' like Sasuke had, so he sent a sympathetic look, "That's rough, man."

Karin looked confused, but rightfully outraged on his behalf like a good little fangirl.

Jugo looked concerned, "Psychiatrist?" he asked softly.

Sasuke spared the drummer a look. Jugo may be a demon when he played, but off stage he cared for his band mates, including their unofficial honorary member. It was weak and girly, but Jugo had his reasons and never let it affect the band's reputation so they never called him out on it.

"Nothing serious. Just Itachi screwing with me again." Sasuke scoffed, letting is irritation seep into his voice.

Jugo and Karin seemed appeased while Suigetsu drank some water disinterestedly; he had been through the process before and didn't feel the need to 'comfort' his friend. They all waited for Sasuke to elaborate.

"And this quack didn't even do anything! All he did for the part of the hour he actually showed up for was read his book!" Sasuke ranted.

"Really?" Karin asked; appalled by what the norms did to her crush.

Jugo shook his head slowly to show that he also thought the 'psychiatrist' was a quack.

Suigetsu had stopped drinking his water long enough to ask, "So he realized it was futile?"

Sasuke shrugged, "No idea, but I have to meet with him every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday."

The band members looked shocked and appalled while Sasuke silently fumed how the man and his brother don't know shit.

**HELL**

Kakashi Hatake was making his way to the therapy office where a certain Uchiha was currently sitting in. He knew he was late, but did not care much. He had spent a little too much time with one of his favorite patients and had lost track of time.

This patient was a permanent resident in Godaime Hokage Mental Hospital admitted almost a year ago due to slow recovery from serious trauma and the fact that the boy had nowhere else to go. The trauma still haunted the poor boy despite the amount of time that had passed or the amount of recovery he had managed. All of it flew out the window whenever the poor boy had a nightmare, like last night.

Last night, the poor boy had relived a part of his trauma through his nightmares and woke up the entire floor with his screams of terror. It had taken the combined power of the boy's best friend, Kakashi, other resident doctors and nurses who also had a soft spot for the boy, and powerful sedatives to calm him down.

After his rounds and other patients, Kakashi had spent most of his time with his favorite patient. He didn't ask about the nightmares, for boy had described them a few times before and knew that he did not like talking about them, even in the right mind when he was not plagued by recent fears the nightmares induced. Instead, he spent his time playing games with the boy and keeping him entertained. He had just gotten his favorite patient to relax enough for a nap when the boy's best friend pointed out the time did Kakashi remember his appointments he had set up as a favor for Itachi Uchiha.

He knew he was late, but felt that Sasuke didn't need to know the reason.

It had been over a week since his first appointment with Itachi's younger brother, and the teenager had yet to say a word.

Kakashi wasn't worried, though. He had expected this and had devised a therapy plan he knew would break the obstinate teenager's silence.

Simply put: he would wait for Sasuke to initiate the therapy. He knew that Sasuke did not believe anything was wrong with him; that it was everyone else that had problems with him. Kakashi also knew that Sasuke considered the silent treatment as a challenge; a challenge he would lose.

Kakashi walked into the room. Sasuke was there, in his usual seat at the middle of the table facing the wall. Kakashi took his usual place to the side furthest from Sasuke, as a sign that he was giving Sasuke his space.

He then placed his notepad and his favorite book on the table in front in front of him and asked, "Do you want to talk today?"

He waited thirty seconds for Sasuke to either show that he would participate, or to continue staring at the wall in front of him as he was doing.

"I see." He conceded. Kakashi then picked up his book and began to read. If Sasuke were to talk with him, Kakashi would have picked up the pad.

He allowed Sasuke to dictate what Kakashi would pay attention to. If Sasuke wanted, he would pay attention to him, but when Sasuke was ignoring him, then he would not scrutinize Sasuke.

The two sat in silence. Sasuke was still stubbornly staring ahead with a focused look on his face. He was probably ranting in his head how he didn't need this; Sasuke always spent the first few minutes ranting to himself. Then Sasuke would probably think about whatever dilemma he had. Kakashi didn't know what it was, but he knew that Sasuke cared about the outcome.

Kakashi had just finished a chapter of his book when Sasuke surprised him.

"Are you seriously reading porn?" Sasuke's voice was filled with indignant shock.

Kakashi merely turned the page before deadpanning, "Yes. It's my favorite book."

"Tch." Sasuke replied, turning back to the wall and crossing his arms, trying to seem uncaring. But Kakashi recognized that Sasuke was tired of the 'competition'.

Kakashi seemingly continued reading the book, but in reality was simply waiting for his newest patient to get a little agitated over the silence so Kakashi could begin talking.

He made it through two more pages before Sasuke's eyes darted back towards Kakashi's book and the teenager scowled. It was time.

"Is there anything wrong with my choice of literature?" Kakashi asked, looking over his favorite book to his newest patient.

"I wouldn't call _that_ 'literature'." Sasuke sneered.

"Lucky for me, I bought it and every other book in its series before hearing your charming opinion." Kakashi replied cheerily. The point of this conversation was not start diagnosing Sasuke or to offer Itachi a cure; it was to simply get Sasuke to start to feel comfortable talking with him.

"You actually read that porno shit in front of your patients?" Sasuke asked in a condescending tone.

The boy obviously found comfort in feeling of superiority to others. For now, Kakashi would hold off on indulging himself in poking fun at that particular trait. He'd try to play along.

"Not in front of younger patients, those who couldn't handle it, or new patients." Kakashi told Sasuke as he turned a page.

"New patients like me?" Sasuke asked as if he had caught Kakashi with his hand in a cookie jar.

"Nope. I know you can look past my choice in reading material. I was taking about new patients who truly need the comfort of a professional psychiatrist listening to them." Kakashi explained, looking up from his book.

Sasuke turned to him with a slightly surprised expression—or a truly surprised expression for an Uchiha Kakashi could tell by using Itachi's lack of range of expression to judge by. Sasuke's eyeliner-rimmed eyes were slightly widened and his pierced lips were parted a little.

Sasuke quickly turned back to the wall with his stoic mask back on, "So you admit that I don't need your help?" he asked monotonously.

Kakashi could tell that the teenager was reprimanding himself for showing him some form of emotion. The psychiatrist knew that he needed to find a way for Sasuke to learn that emotions were not the enemy, or at least find a compromise; but did not know how yet.

"No, you need my help." Kakashi said, lowering the book.

Sasuke threw him a glare, before crossing his arms and staring obstinately at the wall ahead of him.

"But definitely less help than some people in here." Kakashi offered, recognizing that Sasuke was closing himself off from Kakashi because Sasuke believed Kakashi was belittling him like other therapists most likely did in the past.

Sasuke looked slightly mollified, but still stared ahead. Kakashi decided that he should elaborate on some vague details about some patients so Sasuke could feel superior again.

"There's one patient who is convinced that they are Flo the Progressive Girl."

Sasuke's expression lifted a little, so Kakashi continued to describe the more comical patients; making sure to only give vague details as to not impede the patients' rights or give any indication as to who could be who.

"I have one patient who swears they can talk the fish in the lobby. We also have another believes that they are psychic and continuously offers to give our fortune instead of taking treatment." Kakashi sighed.

"That'd be annoying." Sasuke offered, his mood almost amused.

"Not as annoying as one patient who will only respond through rapping." Kakashi countered.

"Damn." Sasuke said in a small gesture of appreciation of the frustration the staff of the mental hospital must share.

"Mmhmm, some days are harder than others." Kakashi returned to his book but continued talking to Sasuke, to show that this was a friendly conversation.

"Really?" Sasuke asked, trying to sound sarcastic, but the honesty of the question was still heard.

"Oh yea," Kakashi nodded wisely, "some days are absolute hell."

Sasuke snorted at this, as if finding something extremely amusing.

"What?" Kakashi asked, trying to figure out what he thought was so funny.

Sasuke turned his head to face Kakashi, an arrogant expression on his face, "'Hell'?"

Slightly confused, Kakashi nodded his head in conferment of what he had said.

Sasuke snorted as he slightly shook his head conceitedly, "You don't know what 'hell' is."

"I don't?" Kakashi challenged, seeing this as an opportunity for Sasuke to open up."

Sasuke turned to face him once again, his expression totally serious and still held its arrogance, "You people have _no idea_ what 'hell' is. You're all delusional. Your conception of 'hell' is nothing but a fairy tale based on your petty discomforts of your cozy reality."

Though slightly taken aback by the teen's passion about the topic, Kakashi still felt a stab of irritation when he was told that he did not know what 'hell' was. Sure, he had used the term jokingly when describing a bad day; but through his patients, Kakashi felt like he had seen more than a glimpse of the real Hell.

But no matter what he felt, Kakashi knew that he had to be mature and professional. He could not lecture this punk teen about his arrogance, nor could he betray his patients' trust and rights by revealing what terrors they had experienced to show the twerp that Sasuke did not in fact know exactly what 'hell' was.

"I'm pretty sure I know what Hell is." Kakashi told the teenager in a serious tone."

"You haven't experienced Hell unless you've been in MY mind, saw one of my nightmares, felt my reality. THAT'S 'Hell'." Sasuke whispered the end; partial challenge for defiance, but mostly a claim of a fact.

All of a sudden, a horrifying scream filled the entire floor, cutting Kakashi off from any chance to refute Sasuke's claim and making the occupants of the room jump.

It was a terror filled scream that Kakashi knew all too well; it was the scream of his favorite patient, Naruto Uzumaki.

Sasuke was looking around the room, bewildered and suspicious because Naruto's voice still penetrated and reverberated around the walls in a continuous yell.

Kakashi tossed his book towards the direction of the table, whether it landed on it or not, Kakashi had no idea.

"Session over. You can go home now." Kakashi hurriedly called to Sasuke as he rushed out of the room.

Kakashi didn't bother to check to see if Sasuke followed his instructions or not, and honestly he didn't care. All he cared about was getting to Naruto at this point. He recognized these screams; Naruto had just relived something from his traumatic past in his dreams and woke up screaming.

The poor boy might have woken up, but he would be in no way conscious of his surroundings if the shouting was any indication. Kakashi had to get to Naruto's room quickly because he was one of the only people able to bring Naruto back to reality.

Kakashi didn't run, but only because he learned from experience how slippery the pristine hospital floors could be against people in a rush; so he power-walked.

When he turned to the hallway containing Naruto's permanent room, he saw his favorite patient's best friend and fellow patient—Gaara—waiting for him at the end of the hallway, telling other doctors and nurses to wait for Kakashi; or more like threatening them rather than telling them.

Once the other staff members saw Kakashi, relieved expressions swam across their faces as most took heed of Gaara's warning and left things to Kakashi; it was a commonly known fact that only Kakashi and sometimes Gaara were able to calm Naruto down after a nightmare.

"What happened?" Kakashi asked as the two made their way to the screaming boy's room.

"Nightmare again. He thinks he's being taken there again." Gaara curtly replied. The red haired youth rarely spoke to others, but trusted Kakashi enough to speak about his best friend's condition and know good results would usually follow.

Kakashi nodded his understanding as he made way into the room.

The sight inside nearly broke the psychiatrist's heart.

There was Naruto Uzumaki, a usually bright, blue-eyed blonde whose focus in life was to bring a smile to other's faces and the current favorite patient of the floor, beloved by doctors, nurses, and fellow patients alike, clutching his head, fisting his hair, squeezing his eyes shut with a constant stream of tears leaking out, and screaming a wordless howl of pure terror, stretching the six whisker-like scars that were cut into his tan cheeks.

The screams alone sent chills down the hardened professional's spine for it gave a small window of what horrors the boy shouting must have experienced and felt.

Kakashi walked forward, making sure to step loudly and create noise along the way so he would not completely catch the traumatized boy off-guard.

Naruto did not seem to notice that there was another person in his room. He was still screaming as loudly as he continued to desperately clutch at his hair, occasionally succeeding in pulling blonde strands from it.

Kakashi tried to discover what the boy had dreamt from his reaction. Did he relive his trauma? Was it a suppressed memory? Was it a simple nightmare? All of these would result in the blonde boy waking up screaming so there was little way to tell. The only person who came close to knowing was Gaara.

Kakashi sent Gaara a look, silently asking what kind of nightmare the red head's best friend was waking up from.

Gaara spared Kakashi a glance before returning his attention to his best friend.

"He dreamt that he was being taken back _there_ again." Gaara murmured. His voice sounded apathetic, but those who knew the boy knew that his speaking at all meant he deeply cared.

Kakashi nodded his understanding. Naruto had a nightmare, not reliving any memories; this would be comparatively easier to deal with than any suppressed memory he could have of his trauma.

Kakashi knew what he had to do, and knew that Gaara knew his part of the routine. Kakashi walked deliberately in front of Naruto's bed, sitting in front of the screaming boy. Gaara walked quietly over to the side of the bed.

The psychiatrist didn't bother to give his other patient some form of signal; the two had calmed Naruto down together enough to have the entire routine memorized.

Kakashi reached forwards and grabbed Naruto's hands, forming a firm claw around the smaller fists. He pulled Naruto's hands down—away from the blonde's head—and held them in front of him.

Gaara watched the process while standing next to the bed.

Once his hands were held, Naruto's screams morphed from lingering fear to a frenzied panic. Kakashi knew that the boy was in his own tortured world and believed that Kakashi was one of 'the bad guys' who were taking him back to '_there_'.

Naruto had had this nightmare many times before. Though, no matter how many times Kakashi pressed for details, all Naruto would describe was a vague rundown of events.

First, Naruto would be stolen from the hospital; '_they'_ had sent 'the bad guys' to get him. Then, the bed guys would constrain him so Naruto couldn't move; sometimes they would beat him in order to tie him down. After that, the bad guys would take him to _them_ back _there_. Naruto never talked further than that due to the fear it caused him.

Kakashi knew that _they_ were the source of the boy's trauma and the nightmares were a result of fear of being taken back into their clutches.

It had taken Kakashi months in order to get that much out of his favorite patient, and even longer to figure out a successful way to calm Naruto down after one of these nightmares that would not cause any more breakdowns.

Naruto thrashed around, desperately attempting to free his hands from Kakashi's grip. Slowly, the screams quieted into desperate sobs.

Once the screaming had subsided, Kakashi began chanting, "It's okay, Naruto. You're safe. It's okay. You're safe now. It's okay…"

After a few minutes, Naruto seemed to regain awareness of his surroundings. Tears still seeped from his eyes, but he was making a conscious effort to stop crying. His arms went limp, but Kakashi still held onto them, but readjusted his hands so that he was gently cradling the younger boy's hands.

Naruto removed his hands from Kakashi's and began to wipe away his tears. Once he was done with that, he looked around the room.

"Ka-Kakashi?" he asked in a feeble, hoarse voice. His throat was sore from all of the screaming and his head hurt.

"Kakashi smiled gently at his patient, "I'm here, Naruto."

Gaara chose then to sit next to his best friend and placed a comforting arm over the blonde's shoulders.

Naruto jumped when he felt something touch him, but relaxed when he turned to see that it was his best friend.

"Gaara." He whispered, confirming that it really was the red head to himself. Gaara nodded his head—a silent gesture to show it was him—and pulled the blonde closer and held him in a comforting embrace.

Naruto wearily leaned into the hug, and began to struggle to hold back tears he refused to let fall.

Noticing this, Kakashi gently asked, "What's wrong, Naruto?" in a soft voice, already knowing the answer.

"I thought I was being taken back there." Naruto whispered in return.

Kakashi reached forward and placed a large hand on a small knee underneath faded orange blankets. He smiled gently from behind his mask and said in a quiet, reassuring tone, "You're not going back there. _They_ can't hurt you anymore. You're safe now."

"Safe?" Naruto whispered, desperate for it to be true. He looked up at Gaara for confirmation.

Gaara's pale green eyes met Naruto's bright blue eyes and held the gaze as he slowly nodded his head.

"You're safe." Gaara whispered back. He pulled Naruto closer and leaned the blonde's head on his shoulder and said in a louder, monotone voice, "I won't let anything hurt you ever again."

Kakashi saw Naruto give a soft smile as the words set in, then saw Naruto's eyes brighten with a certain sense of mischief as he retorted, "Except for when they give me shots. You mysteriously disappear when they do that."

Kakashi laughed, he and Naruto knew that Gaara's strange secret. Gaara hated needles, but only when other people are involved. The red head had no problems with needles himself; he even got a tattoo of the kanji 'Love' on his forehead and didn't shrink away from the significantly more intimidating needle than the regular hospital issued ones. But Gaara couldn't stand seeing a needle disappear into someone else's skin. The one time he had stayed by Naruto's side when he was administered a shot, Gaara nearly feinted.

Gaara scowled a little in response to Naruto's teasing and Kakashi's laughter. But underneath the scowl, Kakashi could see the relief and happiness in response to Naruto having finally calmed down and acting more like his natural self.

Naruto let loose a yawn, not even bothering to hide it behind is hand as the scars on his cheeks stretched in the yawn.

Kakashi felt pity for his patient; Naruto hadn't had a full night's sleep because of his nightmares and now even his nap was disturbed by them. Usually, the boy would only have one night of sleep disrupted by nightmares a week, but every so often the pattern would break and Naruto would suffer through more nightmares than normal. The pattern would normally break after a particularly stressful therapy session like Naruto's last session when the boy would reveal more about his trauma. Like how last session he revealed that _they_ would wear cloaks with red clouds decorated on them.

Kakashi gave a warm smile behind his mask and got up from the bed. He walked over to the cabinet underneath the small, old television that had been donated to the boy's permanent residence. Kakashi opened the cabinet to reveal a small pile of DVDs that had been donated to the boy. Kakashi turned back and asked cheerfully, "Which movie?"

Naruto's eyes lit up. Watching movies were a treat for him.

"THE LION KING!" Naruto exclaimed loudly, causing Gaara next to him to cringe at the abuse to his ears.

Naruto smiled sheepishly, looking up at his best friend, silently asking for forgiveness.

Gaara gave a small sigh and nodded his head, showing that he forgave the blonde.

Naruto responded with a dazzling smile—though it was a little less bright than usual due to his exhaustion.

Kakashi smiled behind his mask as he observed the two's interaction. While Naruto was a naturally sociable person, he only truly relaxed when he was with Gaara. And Gaara would only allow himself to show some form of emotion—small as they may be—when he was alone with Naruto. Both trusted Kakashi enough to allow him to see them like this, but never when they were alone with him. They would show lesser forms of this trust and acceptance when they were alone with the psychiatrist, but reserved themselves for the only ones they truly trusted; each other.

Kakashi popped the DVD into the old DVD player attached to the older TV and made his way back to the door. On his way, his smile grew as he saw the two best friends adjust their position so they were both comfortably lying on the bed; Gaara allowing Naruto to lean on him because he and Kakashi knew that despite his best efforts, Naruto would fall asleep during the movie.

When Kakashi closed the door behind him, he saw Sasuke Uchiha standing near the door, putting his phone in his chained pocket as he heard the door open and close.

The eye not hidden by an eye patch met Sasuke's eyes outlined by black eyeliner.

He gestured that Sasuke should leave as he made his way to his office to fill out some neglected paperwork.

"You say that I don't know hell," Kakashi began, speaking to the stubborn teenager who turned around to face him, "but believe me when I tell you that other people here do know _exactly_ what hell is." Kakashi gestured towards the room he just came from; where off tune singing of 'The Circle of Life' could be heard by one of its occupants.

Without waiting for an answer, Kakashi continued moving to his office. He knew that the younger Uchiha would ask about what he had heard, but he also knew that he himself would say nothing.

Once he made it to his office, he shut his door. The psychiatrists working at the hospital would normally keep their doors open when they weren't too busy because one or another would sometimes as for help and so that the patients could visit them if they felt like they needed to. It was an unspoken rule that they would only close their doors if they were with a patient, client, or needed the time to think.

And Kakashi really needed to think.

He had started to form an idea; one that could be beneficial for more than just one person. He knew that Sasuke would have questions. Normally, he would ignore them because of doctor-patient confidentiality. And he would abide by that rule, but give Sasuke the chance to ask Naruto himself.

Because of his trauma, Naruto had a paranoid fear about strangers. During the year, Naruto had become acquainted with the staff and permanent patients of Hokage Mental Hospital and became his usual sociable self with them. He even got along with a few visiting patients, but only after they had been admitted for a temporary amount of time and had been there for more than two weeks.

Kakashi had wanted to move forwards with exposure therapy and was wondering about who he could bring to introduce to Naruto.

Kakashi hoped that introducing the two teenagers to one another would be beneficial for the both of them.

For Naruto, Kakashi hoped that meeting Sasuke would help treat his fear of meeting strangers by allowing him to meet someone new in a controlled environment so that Naruto could see that there is nothing to fear and that strangers will not take him back to _them_.

For Sasuke, Kakashi hoped that meeting Naruto would help show the angsty teenager that he did not have the worst problems in the world and that he shouldn't be so focused on his own pain. In simple terms, Naruto would be Sasuke's wake up call.

Kakashi gave a wry smile behind his mask. He may have his hopes, but reality could prove to be a bitter enemy. He was more worried about Naruto than about Sasuke, for obvious reasons.

The psychiatrist heaved a heavy sigh. He'd talk to Naruto about his idea later. If Naruto allowed the next stage in his treatment, then he'd let Sasuke meet the blonde boy. He just hoped that it would be as beneficial as he thought it would be.

* * *

**And that was chapter 1.**

**Originally, this was going to be a one-shot, but then I started writing it and adding to it and the story ended up growing so much that the finished thing would be like, 50 pages. So it's going to be a multi-chapter fanfiction.**

**I dunno how long it'll actually be; I add details along the way.**

**Please review lol they makes me smile a lot and are my inner muse's nectar of life. My own being caffeine, but even with that she demands reviews for plot bunnies and words to flow.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**I am finally getting my glorious tan back! Oh the months spent being a comparatively pale olive color: AGONY! I am once again returning to my bronzed glory! Tan Lines are becoming more noticeable too! Thank you, Sun, for you have returned a great part of my happiness! Being tan is the BEST!**

**Onwards with chapter 2!**

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha could be seen wearing a smirk on his face.

He found it. He finally found it. Who knew that those lame-ass 'therapy' sessions would actually _not_ be a complete waste of time? Don't get him wrong; they still suck without the satisfying climax; but by going to them he had finally found it.

The spark, the clincher, the grand finale, the closer; he found it.

Now he could be seen on his inner balcony of Hebi's warehouse with a smirk. He had snuck in while the band was busy practicing and borrowed a spare microphone as well as a few extension cords so he could set up his surprise.

Currently, he was waiting for Hebi to finish their practice. The concert was fast approaching and Slashing Pain and Hellfire were still arguing about Hellfire's screaming quality. At the thought and memory, Sasuke's smirk widened. Those idiots had no idea what he had in store for them.

He got more excited—inwardly of course—as he heard Slashing Pain play the final chords of their favorite song. This was it.

Hellfire took a deep breath away from the microphone. At the same time, Sasuke positioned his phone in front of the spare microphone he had set up on his balcony.

When Hellfire approached the microphone about to scream, Sasuke pressed the button on his phone, his smirk growing to a small smile.

When the ending chord was struck, a terrified scream issued out of Sasuke's phone and reverberated through the entire warehouse via the microphone.

Slashing Pain dropped his guitar—it was hanging off his guitar strap—in shock, looking around the warehouse wildly as his body automatically tensed into a defensive position. He was trembling slightly, and tensing and re-tensing as if ready to run.

Hellfire screamed as well, crouching into a sitting fetal position with her hands covering her ears and her face contorted in fear.

The Demon dropped his drumsticks as he too froze.

The smile on Sasuke's face grew as he observed his friends' reactions. They were reactions of fear just like he himself had responded to hearing the scream yesterday during his 'therapy' session that had ended early because of this screaming.

The voiced incarnation of horror coming from Sasuke's phone was continuous and never decreasing in volume or fright; just like it had been at the hospital.

That was the case for a few minutes, until the continuous howl of terror melded into frantic cries of immediate horrors. They were wordless, yet conveyed how the person screaming was crying for help more clearly than any words could tell.

Sasuke remembered hearing it at the hospital. At first he had been pinned to his chair, unable to move or think about anything other than desperately wondering what horror could be surrounding Sasuke himself. The possibility of the scream being shouted out because of something happening on the other side of the floor to someone else entirely was never thought. The only possible reason for the scream was because danger was imminent.

Judging by how his friends were still frozen on the stage, they too felt like something truly terrifying was in the room.

Hellfire was close to tears by the looks of things—Slashing Pain and The Demon were paling as well—so Sasuke took mercy on them and stopped the recording on his phone.

After 'Doctor' Kakashi had disappeared and Sasuke had unpinned himself from his self-inflicted prison, he had immediately taken out his phone and headed towards the screaming to investigate. While all he learned was that the source was a patient of Godaime Hokage Mental Hospital who had apparently been through 'hell', he _did_ get the recording of the screams on hi phone.

He had gotten Hebi's finale.

Despite the screaming having stopped, all the members of Hebi hadn't moved from their frozen positions. Slashing pain was still poised to run, Hellfire was still in a sitting fetal position cradling her head, and The Demon's arms were raised, ready to strike at anything to come near them.

Normally, as an Uchiha, he would never allow himself to openly tease others as he was above purposefully annoying others for humor…but this was too rich to pass up. Sasuke could not describe it, but something had awakened an old playful side of him that he had thought he had repressed after his parents were murdered. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush after hearing the screams again, but he saw this opening and he was compelled to take it.

"BOO!" he shouted into the spare microphone next to him.

Sasuke had to bite his lips to refrain from openly and disgracefully laughing at Hebi's reactions.

Slashing Pain practically jumped a foot in the air and started running immediately, only to fall off of the stage. Hellfire shrieked loudly as she jumped as well and fell to her side. The Demon had struck his arm out in a wild attack and knocked over his drums, creating a chain of noises which only further frightened the three band members.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Slashing Pain shouted from his position off the stage. Luckily, his guitar was undamaged as if fell on top of him rather than the other way around, but in all of the terrifying confusion, he had somehow tangled himself in his guitar's cord connected to the amplifier.

"I don't know!" The Demon shouted back, retracting his arms back to their defensive pose from before he knocked over his drum set.

"Shut up, just SHUT UP!" Hellfire shouted—her voice border lining hysteria—from her fetal position on the stage, her base guitar lying next to her.

"YOU SHUT UP, BITCH!" Slashing Pain fired back, attempting to untangle himself from the cord.

"WHAT—WHAT DID YOU CALL ME, BASTARD?" Hellfire demanded as she shakily stood up, grasping the microphone stand for support as her legs were still shaking with fear.

Sasuke watched the two bicker with amusement as he also observed The Demon scanning the area for the unidentified terror. Deciding that he did not want to listen to Slashing Pain and Hellfire argue for much longer, he lifted his arm for a lazy wave in The Demon's direction.

The Demon's eyes shot directly at him with ferocious intensity from a combination of adrenaline, a desire to protect close ones, and a lingering fear. It took Sasuke's considerable self-control born from his Uchiha heritage to not flinch as he kept eye contact with the reason they named their drummer his given name.

Sasuke kept the unwavering eye contact until The Demon fully recognized who Sasuke was and that Sasuke was not in any danger.

The Demon's eyes softened as he offered a polite wave in return, "Hey, Sasuke." He called out to the Uchiha to let the others know they were in the company of their honorary band member.

Slashing Pan and Hellfire's heads whipped towards the direction The Demon was facing; both wearing expressions of lingering fear and immense relief as if they expected Sasuke to save them from the mysterious terror behind the sudden screaming.

Sasuke leisurely leaned towards the spare microphone and said, "Hey," in return to The Demon's greeting.

Hellfire's expression grew even more fearful, "SASUKE!" she shouted in a warning tone, "YOU HAVE TO COME OVER HERE _QUICKLY_! THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WAREHOUSE!"

Slashing Pain and The Demon's expressions mirrored Hellfire's concern for their honorary band member as they too remembered the reason they were still shaken.

Sasuke fought hard to not give himself away—to not burst out in excited laughter—as he observed his friends' expressions. He raised his phone back towards the microphone and asked, "What? This?" and pressed the button that caused the terrified screaming of the unknown patient to once again fill the warehouse's occupants with transferred terror.

The three band members of Hebi all jumped again when the screaming re-started. Slashing Pain yelped—a _manly_ yelp—and froze mid-detangling as he once again began frantically searching for the source of the screaming. Hellfire fell to the stage again, taking the microphone stand with her, and resumed clutching her head and curling into a ball. The Demon's eyes widened as he too jumped and automatically flexed his arms into a defensive position, but they were set upon Sasuke's phone.

Unable to resist himself, Sasuke smirked. Then he pressed the button again to stop the screaming.

The silence that followed was filled with pure amusement for Sasuke; the only physical proof being Sasuke's smirk growing a tiny bit.

"THE FUCK, SASUKE?" Slashing pain shouted as soon as he realized that the screaming was a recording on Sasuke's phone that the bastard had used to scare them shitless. Never mind the immense relief the silver haired guitarist felt when realizing that that meant that there was nothing sinister in the warehouse other than their sadistic honorary band member; he was pissed!

Sasuke's smirk stayed in place as he began his leisurely descent from his balcony. His hands were in his chained pockets, his pace was slow and deliberate, his condescending smirk set his expression into a non-caring arrogant look and it suited him well. The only problem he had was to not burst with laughter as he ignored Slashing Pain's stream of choice swears.

When he reached the front of the stage, his smirk threatened to widen as he turned to face Hebi.

"Everyone should go up to the office. I've got some news." With that, he turned away and resumed his slow parade towards the old office on the second floor Hebi occupied in their free time.

While he walked, The Demon passed him while supporting Hellfire whose legs were apparently still weak by the way she was leaning heavily on him. Sasuke also expertly avoided a blow to the back of the head, courtesy of a pissed off Slashing Pain who was grumbling about "fuckers who don't have a life taking out their sexual frustrations out on the innocent."

When Sasuke reached the office, the members of Hebi had removed most of their accessories and stage makeup and once again became Suigetsu, Karin, and Jugo.

"Now will you tell us what the _FUCK_ is wrong with you? Why the hell do you have someone screaming on your phone? What? Last person you got in bed's ruffie wore off and couldn't stand the sight of such a pale emo prick so you choose to take your sexual frustrations out on _US_?" Suigetsu shouted, glaring something fierce at Sasuke who merely walked over to his corner of the office.

Sasuke sat down, he had the vague suspicion that Suigetsu was coming up with the last part of his little speech as he was heading towards the office after successfully detangling himself from the cord.

"Seriously, Sasuke, why did you scare us like that?" Karin asked, for once not immediately trying to seduce Sasuke upon the latter's arrival.

"I'm sure Sasuke has a reason." Jugo tried to assure the other two, giving Sasuke his undivided attention. Sasuke had always appreciated how Jugo understood that Sasuke never did anything without a reason and followed them and himself almost unquestioningly. Plus, Jugo was always the calmest of the group—asides from when he becomes The Demon—so he and Sasuke got along rather well with each other.

Sasuke held up his phone. All three braced themselves as if expecting Sasuke to press the button and unleash the terrified and terrifying screams the phone held.

Instead of pressing the button, Sasuke smirked again. It was time to tell them, "I've found Hebi's finale."

Three momentary blank expressions morphed into excited—in different degrees—expressions as the words set it. Sasuke had found the band's clincher!

"The scream?" Suigetsu asked, then considered it for a second and continued, "Aw man, that's fucking amazing! Hell, even _I_ got scared from it!"

Karin and Jugo nodded their agreement. Jugo gazed out of the dusty window as he recalled the intense fear the scream from the phone emitted and was considering how their audience would react while Karin started gibbering away about how amazing Sasuke was for thinking of such a wonderful idea.

"As expected of our Sasuke!" she finished with a smile that was supposedly sultry and attractive.

Sasuke mentally rolled his eyes at the gesture. Maybe he should turn on the screaming again; the annoying bitch was a lot quieter when she was terrified.

"Where'd you even find that scream anyway?" Suigetsu asked.

"Weren't _you_ the one who suggested that Sasuke recorded the scream after making a date rape?" Jugo asked the guitarist while Karin glared at the silver haired man for even daring to think that her precious Sasuke would take part in such atrocious actions.

Suigetsu waved them away before giving Sasuke an expected look for answers.

Sasuke decided to comply, "Yesterday during my 'therapy' session."

Suigetsu gave a look of understanding, having been forced by his own parents to take therapy at the advice of his older brother. He may have gone to a different hospital, but he knew the drill and how crazy some patients could be.

Karin and Jugo, however, looked like they needed more of an explanation.

"I was talking to the 'psychiatrist' about how he was reading porn—" Sasuke started.

"Porn? For really?" Suigetsu asked, seemingly amused.

Sasuke shot him a shut-up-now glare and continued, "—when suddenly the screaming started. The 'psychiatrist' went to go help the patient and I recorded it on my phone since it is perfect for the show."

Karin, who had been following the story with many agreeing nods to show that she supported each and every one of Sasuke's decisions, declared, "That's perfect!"

Jugo nodded to show that he agreed that the recording was indeed pretty amazing.

Sasuke leaned back, enjoying the internal happiness he felt for finally finding the band's grand finale. He was going to demand for some food when a thought crossed his mind.

That 'psychiatrist' had claimed that other patients in the hospital know exactly what Hell was, and Sasuke was prepared to believe him—internally—if the screams he had heard were anything to go by. Maybe he could convince the 'psychiatrist' to tell him more about these patients; like what _their_ version of Hell was. Sasuke could probably come up with better stage effects if he could find a way to replicate what a crazy person feared or what had caused the screams.

Sasuke's smirk grew, hidden by his hands as he leaned on them. His next visit to Godaime Hokage Mental Hospital should be _very_ informative.

**Hell**

Naruto Uzumaki could be seen with a wide smile on his face.

His favorite nurse, Sakura, had finished the rest of her rounds and was currently in his room. Sakura always claimed that she saved his visit for last because it would be unprofessional to take out her frustrations from his visits on other patients, but Naruto could tell that it was just an excuse.

Still, if Sakura insisted on using that excuse, Naruto saw no reason to disprove her. Every chance he got, he would flirt with her. Most people in the hospital thought that his advances were for honest reasons, but few knew the truth. Gaara and Kakashi knew that Naruto held no romantic interest in the pink haired woman but rather enjoyed her reactions; or at least he used to before they had gone towards the violent side of things. It was unsure if Sakura knew his real reasons, but she had grown to expect his flirtatious manner.

Naruto enjoyed his time shared with the nurse. Though Sakura had a very open materialistic and at times preppy side to her when she first started working at the hospital under the tutelage of the chief, Tsunade Sannin, she had grown into a more mature individual after being humbled by the patients around her. She still had her preppy side, and that was the target of Naruto's daily teasing and flirting.

"Sakuraaaaaa! Will you go out on a date with me?" Naruto asked with an enthusiastic smile as he sat at the edge of his bed so Sakura could go on with his weekly physical. Even though the patients of this floor of the hospital had no real reason for physicals due to their stay at the hospital was not for physical reasons, a few patients were volunteered by family members or other doctors or volunteered themselves. Usually, this was to remind the patients to not physically harm themselves, but Naruto had volunteered immediately after learning who would be doing his physical.

Of course, the patient's doctor _should_ be present during these examinations, to not only provide a constant anchor for the more unstable patients but also so they could see the progress for themselves rather than learn second-hand. But Naruto's doctor was Kakashi—though Tsunade had taken a special interest in him—so he and Sakura never waited for the doctor to arrive anymore to begin the physical.

Sakura sent him an annoyed look before easily answering, "Not in a million years."

"I've never been to 'Million Years' before, is it a bad place for our date, then?" Naruto asked with a blinding smile that would make any innocent bystander believe that he was simply being naïve.

"No, you idiot!" Sakura shouted as she hit the blonde in the back of the head.

"Sakuraaaaa," Naruto whined while rubbing his bruised skull, reminiscing on the good old days when there had been dainty little swats to the top of his head that was proper of such a refined lady rather than the brutal punches he received now that made him wonder what gender she was at times.

Sakura merely huffed at his antics and returned to her job, "Okay now, shirt off." She instructed as she grabbed her stethoscope, prepared to get on with the physical.

"Sakura!" Naruto gasped with an over the top expression of shock, "I never thought you'd try to get me shirtless so fast! We haven't even gone on our date yet!"

The nurse relented an exasperated smile, "Will you give it a rest already? You know the drill, shirt off and deep breaths."

"How can I 'give it a rest' when I have such a lovely lady feeling me up every week?" Naruto asked, before taking a deep breath and gesturing towards her comparatively pale hand on his chest while the other hand held the end of her pink stethoscope against his tanned back.

"You're going to have to because I'm _never_ going to say yes." Sakura answered as she moved the stethoscope slightly so she could hear better.

After she had patted his back—her silent way of letting him know she was done with the stethoscope after so many weekly physicals—Naruto spoke up again, "That's okay. I don't need those words exactly. I'll make do with an 'Of course, Naruto. I'd _looooooooooooooove_ to go out with you!' Hey, I'd even be cool with a 'Screw the date, wanna be my boyfriend?' To which, I'd _definitely_ say yes to, so there won't be any reason to feel nervous about asking, Sakura."

Sakura hit him in the head again, but was laughing this time. Not that her good mood helped any, if anything, this blow to the head hurt more than the earlier one.

After that, Naruto decided to give his head a break from its torture while he allowed Sakura to lead the conversation. Or listen to her gossip about people he did not know about and complain about her friends outside of work while he offered a listening ear and appropriate agreeing comments whenever she asked for his opinion. The topics may have been boring as ever and oh so petty—Naruto was starting to wonder if _all_ women were had this much to complain about each other—but he didn't mind. He was her outlet since he knew no one she was talking about and she would thank him for listening to her weekly rants by bringing him gifts ever so often and by letting him know what was going on outside the hospital walls.

Currently, Sakura was talking about her seemingly favorite subject to talk—complain—about: her 'best friend', Ino. All the while, Naruto was wondering when Kakashi would show up.

"I mean, I can't believe her! So, we were out to lunch, right? Then all of a sudden, she asks me about how work at the hospital is. Immediately, I know something is up. Ino _never_ asks _anyone_ how work is! It's always 'Ino this', and 'Ino that'." Sakura explained as she checked Naruto's reflexes, to which he felt incredibly grateful that she was checking them in the beginning of her rant since he had all too much experience with Sakura taking her frustrations out on him.

Naruto had never met this 'Ino', so he could not fairly judge her for whatever wrongdoings Sakura accused her of. Honestly, through the stories, she sounded a lot like Sakura; just without the self-confidence issues. Still, he would amicably agree with whatever Sakura said about her friends, though secretly wonder why they bothered with the titles at all based off of all the complaints Sakura had.

"But I play along, just to see what the scheming bitch is up to, mind you. And I found it interesting that she seemed actually interested in the people I meet here. Oh, don't worry, though. I didn't mention any patient names." The pinkette added, as if assuring Naruto that she was not a gossip.

Naruto nodded his head to show that he had heard her assurance even though mentally he rolled his eyes as gossiping was _exactly_ what she excelled at in life and resisting the occasional flinch as his favorite nurse's temper rose causing the more than occasional extra force into her routine checkup.

"Then she interrupts me when I told her that there aren't many people our age that come to visit and starts bragging about how many hot guys she gets to meet at work! She kept going on and on, completely oblivious to how she wouldn't even let me get a single word in! Don't you hate that?" she turned to Naruto with an expectant face.

He nodded his head again, knowing that trying to get a word in himself was futile.

"I know right?" Sakura continued, flipping her pink hair over her shoulder as she did, "Anyway, I know she's lying, or at LEAST exaggerating! She works in her family's flower shop! Most of her customers are female, old, or a combination of those looking for floral arrangements. The only hot guys that _would_ visit her flower shop are taken!"

Naruto considered the point being made, but was mostly wondering where in the world was Kakashi? As much as he loved Sakura, he did not want to be forced to listen to another rendition of how Sakura's looks are superior to Ino's.

"And if they _were_ single, they obviously wouldn't be interested in someone like HER! All she's got going for her is that she has big boobs and is blonde. Fucking _blonde_! Like THAT makes any difference! So what if they have 'more fun'? It's an ugly color…no offence." Sakura shot Naruto the same look as before, as if to assure him that he was exempt from her complaints.

Naruto gave a small shrug, showing his friend that he understood what she had assured him. He did wonder why she was hung up about what color Ino's hair was since _she_ died _her_ hair pink. He also mused to himself that he wouldn't mind meeting this apparently curvy Ino.

Sakura took a breath, getting ready to continue her rant when both she and Naruto heard a knock on the door. They turned to see Kakashi having already opened it.

"Good morning." Kakashi greeted them with a smile behind his mask and his eye patch.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura and Naruto shouted in response. Sakura's accusation was filled with annoyance while Naruto's was just loud. He did not care so much as enjoyed this little ritual he had with Sakura.

"Sorry, sorry. You see, I was on my way here when a visiting grandmother arrived and asked me to help her discover the meaning of life through a scavenger hunt." Kakashi answered with a practiced ease.

"LIAR!" the two shouted in response to his obvious lies.

Kakashi shrugged and turned his lazy gaze towards Naruto then towards the nurse, "My, my, my. Did I interrupt you two during a _private_ moment?"

Sakura sent him a confused look. Kakashi then gestured towards Naruto, then the shirt he had taken off for the physical.

Slightly blushing and in a very loud voice, "Kakashi! You KNOW that was hospital policy!"

Unfazed, Kakashi turned to Naruto.

Grinning extra widely, Naruto placed his hands behind his neck as he said, "What can I say, Kakashi? She can't take her hands off me!"

"IDIOT!" Sakura shouted as she delivered the heaviest blow yet to Naruto's poor head. He whimpered a little as a show and rubbed his head, pouting a little.

Kakashi chuckled warmly before asking the nurse, "How was his physical?"

"He's perfectly healthy, as usual." Sakura answered immediately in her professional voice.

"Good! Now, I am terribly sorry to ask this of you two secret lovers," Kakashi winked at the two as Naruto laughed and Sakura huffed out of frustration, "Sakura, could you excuse us? I need to ask my patient something."

Naruto and Sakura shared a look of confusion with each other, silently asking if the other knew what Kakashi was talking about and answering that they did not.

Sakura gave Kakashi a nod to show she understood, then turned to Naruto and said, "Next time I visit you, I'll bring you some instant ramen."

"Thank you, Sakura! You are truly the embodiment of beauty, compassion, and perfection! Maybe we can make it a date?" Naruto asked with a large smile.

Instead of hitting him, Sakura giggled and quipped, "No." with a smile of her own. She then gave him a pat on the shoulder and turned to leave the room.

Once the door had been shut, Naruto asked, "So what's up, Kakashi?" as he reached for his shirt.

After the shirt was properly put back on, Kakashi walked over to Naruto's bed and sat at the edge.

Kakashi was giving him a strangely emotional look; his one visible eye held trepidation, concern, and warmth. It confused Naruto, though not as much as it worried him. He barely took notice that this was one of the few times he had seen his perpetually calmed doctor show such unconcealed emotion without Naruto himself reliving a piece of his haunted past because he was worried about all of the possible reasons for such an expression on his doctor's face.

Was he going to say that he can no longer be Naruto's doctor? Was he going to say that Gaara agreed to let his siblings take him home? Was he going to say that he was going to be transferred to another hospital? Was he going to say that there was no other hospital and they were going to just kick him out? Was he going to say that they knew that Naruto was a _monster_? Was he going to say that they _knew_ what he had done? Was he going to say that _THEY_ found him? WAS HE GOING TO SAY THAT _THEY_ WERE GOING TO TAKE HIM BACK?

Naruto was not aware that he was on the verge of hyperventilating until he heard the baritone of Kakashi's reassuring and calming voice instructing him to take deep breaths.

After he had decelerated his heart rate and breathing to normal levels, Naruto shot his doctor a brief guilty glance for being so damn weak before quickly turning away so he would not have to see the pitying gaze he was sure to see.

"Sorry." Naruto said in a dull tone. He was internally berating himself for being so goddamn weak after almost a year's worth of progress and preparing himself to hear whatever bad news Kakashi was about to tell him.

"No need to apologize," Kakashi chided gently, "What got you so worked up?" Kakashi's tone was gentle and reproachful, as if asking Naruto to tell Kakashi what the doctor had done wrong and at the same time apologizing for whatever it had been.

Naruto shook his head slightly, silently telling the other that it was not his fault, "I just freaked myself out."

Kakashi gave a gentle, understanding smile as he placed a hand on the teenager's shoulder, "It was my fault, I should have let you know that I simply want to ask you for a favor."

At this, Naruto turned and gave Kakashi a confused and surprised look; wondering what kind of favor and feeling immense relief that it was none of Naruto's theories.

"Before I ask," Kakashi started, removing his hand from Naruto's shoulder and rearranging himself into a more comfortable position, "I want to tell you about this new patient on mine, if that is okay."

"But isn't there some sort of doctor-patient confidentiality thing?" Naruto asked.

"When I say that I'm telling you about a new patient, I mean that I will only speak in the general sense and not give any details as to why they are my patient." Kakashi assured him, giving a small shrug.

Naruto nodded, still wondering what kind of favor would be asked of him and why in the world would Kakashi tell _him_ about another patient in order to ask.

"You see, this patient is not a resident here, like you or Gaara, but rather comes for an hour long visit after school." Kakashi said; letting Naruto nod his understanding of the information he was just given.

"Now there is nothing wrong with staying here, or just visiting for an hour, but I feel that their sessions with me are not making as much progress as I would like."

"Why?" Naruto interrupted before catching himself and quickly placing his hands over his mouth as if to take back his interruption.

Kakashi gave a light smile, wagging his finger in Naruto's face mocking scolding and said, "That I cannot tell you."

Naruto quickly nodded to show that he completely understood; the speed of his head bopping up and down near comical, as if he had hoped that the force and speed of his silent agreement could take back the question as well.

"But I _can_ tell you that I believe that they will make more progress if they spent some time visiting a patient."

Naruto's eyes lit up, "Oh! And you want me to help figure out which patient, huh? I don't think they should see Gaara. He'd probably scare the shit out of them. Oh, and they shouldn't see Killer Bee, too. They probably wouldn't understand a word he said! But Utakata should be alright. Sure, he has that weird obsession with bubbles and doesn't talk a lot, but he's a really great guy and is a good listener!"

"Unlike someone I know." Kakashi cut him, his tone and expression playful.

"Eh?" Naruto asked, squinting his eyes in his confusion.

Kakashi's visible eye crinkled playfully as he chided, "I never said that I wanted help figuring out which patient."

"…Oh," Naruto answered, opening his eyes and blinking a little in his surprise.

"The favor I am asking you for is to allow the patient to visit _you_, Naruto." Kakashi told him, still in a gentle tone, but his eye had traded its playfulness to a more serious gaze.

Instantly, Naruto was in a slight panic that would only grow worse, despite his desires.

Have the patient meet _him_? Naruto did not know if he could handle that! What if the stranger _knew_? What if the stranger _knew_ that he was a _monster_? What if—what if the stranger knew _THEM_? What if they stranger was going to TAKE him to _THEM_? Naruto couldn't allow that! He didn't want that! He didn't want to go back _there_!

"Naruto," a firm voice that sounded so distant pierced through his harsh breathing.

Naruto shakily looked around to observe his surroundings, slowly becoming aware of how his chest slightly hurt from the force of his labored breathing and how he had curled himself into a protective ball.

The blonde patient slowly uncurled himself enough to lift his head up to face his doctor. He saw Kakashi very close to him and observed that Kakashi had his hands holding Naruto's shoulders and keeping him in a sitting position.

Blue eyes stared bore into a firm grey eye, trying to calm himself by reminding himself who it was in front of him.

When his erratic breathing was once more on appropriate levels, Naruto forcibly relaxed his tensed muscles. He closed his eyes and took a few extra deep breaths, sucking in air for ten seconds and releasing air in the same amount of time.

When he was done calming down, he gave Kakashi a quick glance to show that he was okay before looking to the side and muttering, "Sorry."

"It's alright," Kakashi immediately responded, giving him a pat on the shoulder, "I'm impressed, though. That has been the shortest amount of time it took you to calm down. You have improved a lot."

At the praise, Naruto's enthusiasm rose while his internal berating for being weak lessened, "Really?" he asked, his blue eyes practically sparkling.

"Definitely." Kakashi assured him, giving him a smile behind his mask.

Naruto gave a glowing smile, happy at the thought that he had progressed and was becoming stronger. Soon, he'd be strong enough to overcome the pathetic weakness that he had.

"So what got you so worked up?" Kakashi asked. The words were blunt, but again, the tone was gentle and apologetic.

Naruto's smile faltered a little, until he replaced with an almost equally as wide but fake grin to hide his shame for being so weak, "Nothing, I just freaked myself out again."

"Again?" Kakashi asked, removing his arms from Naruto's shoulders and leaning back on them.

"Y-yeah," there was no use lying to Kakashi, his doctor could always read between the lines; something about looking underneath the underneath. That damn sneaky bastard.

Kakashi gave him a probing look, silently demanding for answers and Naruto sighed, complying to the demands.

"I just…thought about…_them_." Naruto answered weakly, hoping that Kakashi would not probe any further. He already humiliated himself by freaking out twice today, he did not want to add a third.

"Ah," Kakashi said, closing his eye and giving a slight nod, "well you have nothing to fear. This patient has no idea who _they_ are."

Naruto have a numb nod. Of course, he freaked himself out for nothing. Of course the person Kakashi was talking about had no idea who _they_ are. The person was probably a normal person, suffering from a normal affliction and reveled in their normalness—in normal moderations.

"But if you can't handle it then I won't force you into meeting them. Instead, they could meet Utakata like you suggested." Kakashi assured with a tender smile on his face.

"No."

"No?" Kakashi asked, opening his eye to look at Naruto, though not with surprise.

"Naruto Uzumaki does not give up. I'll meet with this patient of yours."

* * *

**And that was the chapter.**

**WOW that took a long time to write. I blame my muse. She likes to give me ideas instead of the words to articulate them. Bitch.**

**Soooooo I just recently got into Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles and omgeeeeee! I LOVE KUROxFAI! (Not as much as SasuNaru but sooooooooooo close!) And something I love the MOST about them is how their relationship is canon in every way except for actually admitting it! They are sooooooooooo sweet! And it fed my inner yaoi fangirl's desires!**

**And taking the advice of true fans of the series, I have refused to watch the anime. My reasons are purely because the anime rejects KuroFai and flippin changes aspects of the series to pair them in heterosexual pairings. It is so bad that it has been officially disowned by CLAMP, the series' creators. At first, I wanted to see the dub because Fai—my absolute favorite in the series—is voiced by Vic Mignogna who voices another anime lover of mine, the amazing Edward Elric. But then I learned that Vic abhors KuroFai to the point where he lies by saying that he called CLAMP and they assured him that neither of the two characters are gay. But that is an obvious lie since he clearly doesn't speak Japanese and CLAMP has stated that the two characters share an eternal bond; unfortunately they do not officially say that they are lovers, but they do not reject it and more importantly support the fandom.**

**Oh, but the OVA Tsubasu Chronicles: Tokyo Revelations is totally legit. It stays with the series and there are sooooo many fangirl moments! I LOVE IT!**

**Anyways, you don't wanna hear about my newest fangirl conquests lol. You wanna hear that I will certainly update stories faster, if I can.**

**Thank you so much to those who review! You guys are my favorite and much needed nourishment for my muse!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**A weird thing happens in college…when I'm hanging out with my friends, or just lounging around campus either being lazy or challenging people to play freeze-tag, I keep thinking to myself, 'has it only been three weeks?' but then in class, when the work gets more and more demanding, I think, 'WTF? It's only the third week!' But maybe that's just me. Oh well, lol.**

**Anyhoo, onwards with the chapter!**

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha was not known as a patient man. When he wanted something, he got it.

And what he wanted right now was to know more about the mysterious screaming patient somewhere in this mental hospital.

He assumed that this patient was a guy judging by the lack of extremely high pitched screaming like a girl would sound like that he had heard the other day. He also presumed that this patient was somewhere in his teens because while the voice was deep enough to have gone through puberty, it did not sound deep enough to be a fully matured adult.

Other than that, Sasuke could not guess anything else.

Apparently, this patient had gone through 'hell', according to that shit 'doctor'. Not that Sasuke doubted that the fear the guy had was not genuine—even _he_ felt a little frightened by the scream's residual effects—but he doubted that it was _true_ 'hell'.

Sasuke had seen hell. He saw it when he saw his parents' body bags being taken away by a coroner. Seeing his parents' lifeless corpses in their coffins was hell.

The only problem was with hell was that it was nearly impossible to portray on stage.

That was the band's current mission. They had gotten their clincher, but wanted to expand. Maybe the screams in Sasuke's phone were proficient enough for the concert they had during the weekend, but that was only the beginning.

The concert was truly a work of art. Until the final song, everything had gone by like normal; their loyal fans had enjoyed everything; especially their newest song. The fans did their usual cheering, binging, and getting lost in the music. Everything was normal.

At the beginning of the last song, Hellfire had done her best to imitate the screams of the mysterious patient. The fans were taken a little aback, but quickly recovered and had cheered with more enthusiasm.

Unbeknownst to them, Sasuke was on his usual balcony and had once again installed a spare microphone and had his phone ready.

Before the concert, the band members had placed their ear plugs in because of the usual noise level and so they wouldn't mess up the songs due to missing a beat because of lagged hearing. They did this before every show, but had paid special attention to that step because they themselves were still getting used to the screams that would be emitted from Sasuke's phone.

Sasuke had also used his own ear plugs because the screams would be even more amplified than during their practice.

At a signal from The Demon, Sasuke had pressed PLAY on his phone.

The effect was instantaneous! The fans were scared shitless! A few had immediately run out of the building many had jumped and began to panic, and the majority had dropped to the floor in fear.

Sasuke had allowed the screaming to continue for thirty seconds, and then signaled to The Demon that he has done.

When they had realized that the terrifying scream was a part of the show, the crowd went wild. It was clear that the screams had won them over and that their next show would be packed with newcomers based on how many people had whipped out their phones.

Sasuke inwardly smirked; he had found the band their spark and it was a complete success.

But there was little time to celebrate. Now he wanted to expand. He blamed it on the perfectionist inside of him that lived on despite his extreme lack of caring about those around him.

Whatever. He figured that since it was this mysterious patient that had given him the idea for terror as a spark, all he'd have to do was find out what had scared the guy and somehow project that onto the stage.

Sasuke's inward smirk grew. The pussy was probably afraid of his own shadow since he ended up in this lame-ass excuse for a 'hospital'. Only crazy people ended up in places like this.

The Uchiha mentally sighed. The guy that had produced the scream was probably a loony who was only afraid of his own mind. Sasuke wanted to project _fear_ to the audience; not crazy.

But whatever. He was being forced by his no good older _brother_ to go to this shithole so along with wasting the guy's money that could have been spent on more important things, Sasuke figured that he might as well try to find out more about these peoples' skewed versions of 'hell'.

It was already sixteen minutes into his appointed hour and still no 'psychiatrist'. Sasuke was sensing a pattern. Not that he cared.

Finally, the door opened, and through it walked Sasuke's masked 'psychiatrist'.

Like every other session, 'Dr.' Hatake walked to his seat on the furthest side from Sasuke and placed his porno book and a notepad on the table. Then he asked, "So, Sasuke. Do you want to talk today?"

Normally, Sasuke would ignore the man, but now he needed something.

He knew that his 'psychiatrist' knew and treated the mysterious patient since those doctors that were outside the patient's room looked somewhat relieved when 'Dr.' Hatake went in. And after a few minutes the screaming had stopped, and then the 'psychiatrist' had left the room and told Sasuke that the mysterious patient had apparently been though 'hell'.

So to appease the man and to indicate that he would be speaking—when absolutely needed for his own purposes—Sasuke grunted, "Hn."

With that, the 'psychiatrist' did something he never did before; he grabbed his notepad instead of the porno.

The 'psychiatrist' then looked over at Sasuke with his one uncovered eye and commented, "Well this is a first. What do you want to know?"

That threw Sasuke into a _temporary_ loop of which he quickly recovered from; he had been expecting 'Dr.' Hatake to start trying to diagnose him, asking questions about his childhood, or whatever these money grabbing thieves did to both bore Sasuke and continue to waste Itachi's money.

Due to his being an Uchiha, Sasuke hadn't let his expression show that he was momentarily stunned and went straight to the point, "Who was it that screamed last time?"

The 'psychiatrist' put the notepad down on the table and began to write something—Sasuke did not look to see what since it was most likely annoying notes about everything that did and would come out of his mouth—and answered, "A patient."

Slightly annoyed, Sasuke tried again, "Well why was he screaming?"

"I said it was a male?" the 'doctor' asked in mock shock.

"I could tell by the voice." Sasuke held back a growl, this was probably a bad idea.

Without looking up from his note pad, 'Dr.' Hatake's began to speak again, his tone full of indifference, "Well, congratulations."

"So why was he screaming?" Sasuke repeated, trying very hard to not let anger lace his tone so this son of a bitch won't start writing down shit about his irritation on that damn notepad.

'Dr.' Hatake glanced at him, and spoke in a tone as if explaining something to a child, "Usually, when someone screams, that either means that they want something or that something is wrong."

This man was infuriating! He didn't deserve to be called a 'doctor'! Only immature fuckers like this guy constantly evaded answering _simple_ questions!

Sasuke had to actually put an effort into holding back a growl and a scowl. So he held himself back and simply resumed his normal position of folding his arms across his chest since _Kakashi_ obviously wasn't going to answer his questions.

He mentally dared _Kakashi_ to write about _that_ in his notepad.

Then Sasuke looked over to said notepad to see if he would be right, and saw a doodle a scarecrow!

The Uchiha had to try very hard not to show any emotion…_especially_ irritation and being pissed at this fucker!

So he eventually settled for glaring at the opposite wall; much like he had for the first couple of 'sessions'.

He then heard the notepad being put down but did not look over.

"Sasuke," Kakashi's tone was one with patience, and it was annoying, "I didn't evade your questions _only_ for my amusement,"

'_So he admitted he was doing it for his amusement_.' Sasuke thought to himself. He was still annoyed by the tone the other was using; he wasn't some kid having a temper tantrum.

"—but I did so because I _can't_ answer your questions about any patient here. Doctor-Patient Confidentiality."

Sasuke _would_ have groaned at the reminder that he had overlooked in his—'eagerness' was too strong a word—_search_ for a way to expand upon the mysterious patient's screams for Hebi, but he was an Uchiha; Uchihas don't groan.

But he _did_ mentally berate himself for forgetting about that important rule. He himself never had to worry about it because he never _said_ anything for any 'doctors' to keep confidential.

Without realizing it, Sasuke's glare lessened as he considered Kakashi's reasoning. Sure, the enjoying it part sucked without the satisfying climax, but now he—begrudgingly—understood that he couldn't ask questions about patients as he pleased.

Dammit.

Suddenly, Kakashi's voice broke through his inner—_slight_—disappointment, "I'll make you a deal."

Not that Sasuke was interested or anything, but he glanced over at Kakashi to listen about this so-called 'deal'.

"I can't tell you anything about the patient, but if they agree, I can let you meet them." Kakashi offered in a lazy tone, disinterested as he picked up his pad of paper again; probably to doodle something else.

Sasuke was silent as he considered the offer.

Meeting the mysterious patient and asking them questions himself _would_ be a more direct and efficient way to get the answers and inspiration he wanted, but he hated loonies. The guy would more likely than not be some crazy ass, twitchy, strung up guy who would talk to the voices in their head and all that crazy shit.

Whatever. As long as Sasuke got enough inspiration to be able to project fear to the audience for Hebi's next concert, then it would be halfway worth it.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted as an affirmative to accepting this deal.

"But I can't do that now." Kakashi said in the same offhanded tone.

Now Sasuke was getting pissed again. _First_ this guy immaturely evades his questions about the mysterious patient. _Then_ offers to introduce the two. And _now_ he says he won't go through with the deal? What the hell?!

Sasuke glared at him for a moment before returning his attention to the wall.

"You didn't honestly believe that I'd let you meet this patient simply because you want an answer to a question that they themselves are probably agonizing over just because you want me to, did you?" Kakashi asked, his tone border-lining patronizing, sarcastic, and mocking all at once.

Sasuke did not look away from the wall. In truth, he did. He was an Uchiha, and people gave shit to Uchiha even if they didn't want it.

Kakashi shook his head and 'tsked' him somewhat mockingly, "Reality doesn't work that way. If you want something, you work for it."

Sasuke mentally indulged himself in rolling his eyes. He already _knew_ this shit. This guy wasn't a 'psychiatrist'! He was a walking fortune cookie and not as helpful.

"Now let's go over _your_ part of the deal." Kakashi drawled, sounding completely bored.

_His_ part of the deal?! Didn't Kakashi JUST say that he wasn't going to go through with the deal?

As if reading his mind, Kakashi said his fortune cookie shit, "A deal works in both ways. You want to meet this patient, so you have to do something for it."

Sasuke did not like how the man was being cryptic about what he wanted Sasuke to do. "Hn," he grunted, showing that he was listening, even though he refused to look over at the 'psychiatrist'.

"Your part of the deal is simple: actually participate in these sessions."

Sasuke actually did spare Kakashi a glance. 'Participate'? He was listening to the guy ramble on, wasn't he? That was participation enough.

But Kakashi continued, "And by participate, I mean talking to me. I won't require you to start spilling your secrets or give me the latest high school gossip or whatever the hell you think people normally talk about in here."

Sasuke slightly raised his eyebrow as he turned his attention back to Kakashi.

If the 'psychiatrist' didn't want him to start spouting out his supposedly deepest, darkest secrets that the guy was supposed to analyze and shit, then what the hell DID he want Sasuke to talk about? His hopes and dreams? His past? His blood type or astrological sign that supposedly predicted the future and revealed inner qualities for dumbshits who actually believed them?

Again, reading his mind, Kakashi said, "For now, I'll settle for a little knowledge and your opinions. I don't care about things like your favorite color, blood types, or astrological sign or whatnot, and neither do you. And frankly, I don't need you to tell me because it's on your file."

Weighing his options, the only thing that came to mind was questioning why this man wanted to talk about useless shit then.

"Why?" Sasuke asked, deciding that he'd make a decision if the answer was adequate.

Kakashi met his gaze with his one uncovered eye and said, "You might be fine with wasting your brother's money and concern, but I'm wasting time that could be spent with people who, if you remember our last session, might need me doing rounds."

"No one asked you to do this." Sasuke shot back. It wasn't as if he was defensive or anything. He just didn't like how this Kakashi was looking down upon him.

"And none of the patients admitted here asked to have their problems." Kakashi retorted.

Sasuke looked away again. He didn't feel guilty at all. Uchihas _don't _do 'guilt'.

He didn't care about these loonies and their so called 'problems'. They were all probably high on drugs or something.

The Uchiha shifted a little in his chair, somewhat uneasily. He had remembered the scream; the pure, undiluted, and utter _fear_ in that scream. That couldn't have been because of drugs…right?

Whatever. He didn't care. They guy was a loony so he was below Sasuke's tolerance for pity. Sasuke didn't care…

"Deal?" once again, Kakashi's voice cut through Sasuke's inner thoughts.

After a little debate, and Hebi's needs before Sasuke's current mood—because he figured that he'd play along, meet the loony, get his answers rather quickly since loonies were always spouting out what was wrong with them for sympathy, then he'd go back to wasting Itachi's money—Sasuke agreed.

Nodding, Kakashi leaned back in his chair, and asked, "So, what's your name, your likes, dislikes, and your hopes and dreams."

'_Is he serious_?' Sasuke asked himself. After waiting a few moments for the 'psychiatrist' to take back those ridiculous questions, Kakashi had said nothing and continued to stare expectantly.

Sighing mentally, Sasuke wondered why he ever agreed to this. Oh yeah; Hebi.

"Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke clipped, "I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and kill whoever murdered my parents."

Sasuke expected Kakashi's pencil to go flying, wizzing by as he rapidly wrote down eveything Sasuke had said and psycho-analyzed every syllable. That's what the school councilor had done when Sasuke had told them the same thing, minus the killing part.

But Kakashi surprised him by placing the notepad down—a doodle of a pug wearing a vest with the same scarecrow image from before—and stood up.

Kakashi looked at him with his one available eye a little expectantly, making Sasuke bark out, "What?"

Kakashi had a look of indifference on his non-covered fourth of a face and said, "I was under the impression that you wanted permission to meet the patient."

Again, surprised, Sasuke stood up; making sure that he didn't stand up _too_ quickly, else the 'psychiatrist' would think that he was actually excited. Which he wasn't.

Sasuke followed 'Dr.' Hatake to the double doors blocking the residence ward from the rest of the floor.

He had actually not noticed them fully before because they were mostly in the background to him. And the last time he had been there, the patient had been screaming bloody murder so the doors were kept wide open—probably for Kakashi now that Sasuke thought about it—and there was no nurse at the nurse's station next to it. Unlike now.

Stopping in front of the station, Kakashi had motioned for the nurse for something.

Then he was given a large paper bag.

Kakashi turned back to Sasuke and placed the bag on the floor.

"Alright, metal, electronics, strings, and anything in your pockets: off." The 'psychiatrist' instructed to him, gesturing with one hand the paper bag on the floor.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him.

Kakashi then bluntly explained, "You are entering the residence ward to for a mental hospital. Some people in there wouldn't think twice about tackling you to the ground if they saw you had those things that they aren't allowed to have in case they want to use them to hurt themselves or others."

Seeing the logic, but mentally rolling his eyes in annoyance because he didn't want to go through the process of unchaining and re-chaining his pants, or doing the same with his piercings.

But whatever. He didn't care.

After a while, after the nurse had deemed him safe from being mauled by the crazies, Sasuke waited for Kakashi to open up the doors and inwardly braced himself for the loonies.

**Hell**

Naruto Uzumaki was not a patient man. When he was told he had to wait for something, it was near torture!

It was like, his body just couldn't _do_ 'patient'. He got all fidgety and anxious, and sometimes extremely excited or nervous depending on the occasion.

Right now he was suffering from nervous fidgets; Kakashi had told him that the patient he had talked to Naruto about earlier was going to visit today.

Kakashi had been kinda cryptic about it all—which Naruto didn't do much about other than obligatory whining about how Kakashi would tease him with non-answers like he always did—because he knew all about Doctor-Patient Confidentiality.

He used to not understand, back when he refused to talk to Kakashi after coming here out of fear that Kakashi would tell _them_ where he was—but Kakashi had explained it to him in simple terms and used puppets to reinforce the lesson.

So Naruto had refrained himself from asking too many questions about this patient of Kakashi's that he was going to meet.

He _did_, however, try to ask Kakashi the patient's gender and age, but after getting slightly frustrated with Kakashi's non-answers, his masked doctor reminded him about the rules of confidentiality; Kakashi couldn't reveal _any_ information that might be able to let anyone recognize the patients with their problems.

Naruto felt a little guilty for asking, and had apologized, but that didn't stop him from wanting to know the age/gender of the person he was going to meet!

He had asked the nurses, other doctors, and other patients about how people would normally interact with one another and greet each other if they weren't, well, living in a mental hospital.

He didn't want to give off the impression that he was some crazy dude in a loony bin. So he figured that he'd ask those who regularly went out in the real world or those who recently lived in it before coming here. Naruto himself hadn't been exposed to the real world since before…_they_…took him…_there_…and that had been a little after he had turn thirteen.

The other patients hadn't been as much help as he had hoped, but he did learn things he should avoid like constantly rapping or offering insurance discounts if they went to progressive dot come, whatever that was.

The other doctors, besides Kakashi, who worked with other patients, who were nice and Naruto regularly talked to—in small pockets of time because the doctors always understandably had busy schedules—were somewhat helpful.

They told Naruto that when first meeting others, the most socially acceptable thing to do was to shake hands and introduce himself first since this patient was going to come to visit _him_; so he was the host. They also said that being polite during the first meeting was the best thing to do for a good impression.

The nurses, who Naruto could talk to for longer periods of time and were really nice to him, were by far the most helpful. They were also the reason why Naruto had asked Kakashi for the patient's gender and age.

The nurses who he spoke to—Sakura had classes and other Sakura-stuff so she could only come to visit him when she worked in this wing on Wednesdays and Fridays—had told him that what the doctors had said was true for initial greetings, but interacting with the other person depended on their age and gender.

They had explained that apparently being polite to a girl was different to being polite to a guy. There were many instructions for being polite to a girl, all of which Naruto had paid attention to and made a mental note to do for Sakura while he fake-flirted with her, but not as many for being polite to a guy.

He was slightly confused by that, considering that the number or rules for being polite to a girl were near endless, but shrugged it off, thinking it was mostly because he was asking girls and they would naturally know more about girls.

So he asked the resident male nurses, Koketsu and Izumo—who were called in for the bulkier and more troublesome patients, though they complained that they were actually more like Tsunade's errand boys—about being polite to other guys and why there was such a difference between being polite to girls and guys.

The Koketsu and Izumo—who preferred to be called by their names rather than 'male nurse' or 'murse' as Naruto and some of the other patients, and other nurses, would sometimes call them behind their backs—had shared a look when Naruto explained that he was asking them because the lady nurses had told them a whole bunch of rules about being polite to _women_, but not a lot for being polite to _men_.

They had explained—after making Naruto promise that he wouldn't tell any of the female nurses what they had said—that women were generally more high maintenance than men and mostly _wished_ for all those polite-rules rather than _demand_ for them.

Then they told Naruto that the rules for being polite mostly varied with age if people were being anal about it, and mostly stayed the same throughout all else.

They said that being polite for kids mostly meant watching his language, not insulting them, and making sure that they don't think they can get away with being brats around him.

Then they explained that with people his own age, being polite mostly meant that he shouldn't insult them, pick fights with them, insinuate that he's superior for no reason, invade personal space, and especially to mind his own business.

They said that adults like them and people Tsunade and Naruto's godfather Jiraiya's age followed the same rules, but listen to what they say and to be extra courteous and all that jazzy stuff.

Naruto thanked them when Kakashi had come to escort him back to his room. Today was the day that Kakashi's patient was going to visit Naruto.

Kakashi had explained that if they patient agreed, then half of their hour was going to be therapy stuff, and the other half would be with Naruto. Kakashi never said why they had to be with Naruto, though, and merely non-answered that he believed it would be helpful.

Naruto's doctor also explained that for convenience and for Naruto's personal comfort, the visits during the patient's sessions would be held in Naruto's room. But if the patient, since they were not a resident here, wanted to visit on their own time, then they would go through the normal procedure and visitor's room.

Then Kakashi had said that he was late for the session, making Naruto roll his eyes, and he left.

So that left Naruto alone in the room; nervously waiting not-so-patiently. He kept fidgeting, pacing around, and constantly reminding himself to not call for Gaara, hide under the covers, or grabbing his stuffed animals from under the bed.

He was a sixteen year old _man_ dammit, he didn't want the patient's first impression of him—the guy living in a mental hospital—be that he was some weak girly child who needed his stuffed animals for comfort _just_ because he was meeting someone new today.

Even though he kept telling himself this, that didn't stop the fear for this visit from creeping into his thoughts.

What if the patient thought he was a freak? What if the patient knew he was a monster? What if the patient knew _them_?

Thoughts like that kept bombarding Naruto's thoughts despite his constant attempts to refute them.

A combination of nerves, fear, and a general distaste for _waiting_ caused Naruto to pace around his room. He tried to mirror how Kakashi looked when he was pacing his office and Naruto would keep him company—commandeer his couch and laptop for gaming purposes—because _that_ kind of pacing looked like he had a purpose and was smart rather than nervous and fidgety.

FINALLY, he heard three taps on his door; Kakashi's way of knocking.

Naruto tried to walk in a calm, even manner, but ended up almost tripping over his feet at least twice because of his nerves.

He opened the door halfway and only saw Kakashi in the doorway.

The way he stood was casual, but Naruto could see the differences between his usual-casual stance, and his guarded-casual stance. Kakashi only used his guarded-casual stance when he was discreetly blocking someone from the other; so Naruto knew better than to try to poke his head passed Kakashi to see this patient of his.

"Hi Kakashi!" Naruto smiled. It wasn't his usual smile due to nerves, but it was a smile nonetheless.

Kakashi returned the smile from beneath his mask as his uncovered eye crinkled with contentment, "Yo," he responded with a small wave.

Before Naruto could question about the whereabouts of the unseen patient who was supposed to be visiting him, Kakashi asked in a light tone, "Do you give me and my patient here permission to talk to you?"

A little confused, Naruto answered, "Yeah?"

Kakashi's gray eye grew more serious as he asked, "Do we have your permission to visit you in your room?"

His own blue eyes widened as he understood. Kakashi was asking because if he didn't, he'd be breaking the Doctor-Patient Confidentiality thingy or something.

Naruto nodded and opened the door wider as he stepped back and said, "Yeah, you have my permission."

Kakashi nodded then proceeded to walk in, motioning for someone in the hallway to follow.

Naruto held the door open because that was what the nurses had said was the polite thing to do.

Then the other patient walked in and Naruto saw that it was a boy around his age.

As soon as he saw the other boy, Naruto couldn't help but STARE!

There were a few differences, but this boy looked REALLY similar to _HIM_!

Their hair length and color were different; _HE_ had a lighter shade of black hair pulled into a ponytail save for _his_ bangs. _HE_ was taller, as well as older. And _HIS_ eyes were prettier and lined with more eyelashes rather than eye_liner_.

But this guy looked REALLY similar to _HIM_! They guy who USED to be a part of _THEM_ but later helped Naruto, Gaara, and the others escape!

The other boy caught him staring and barked, "What?"

Naruto flinched, then busied himself with closing the door, reprimanding himself; the nurses had said that staring was rude.

The other boy wasn't paying attention to him anymore—looking around the room—so the blonde took the time to mentally thank himself for hiding his more childish means of comfort under the bed and to review Koketsu, Izumo, and the nurses had said about being polite to boys his own age.

Nodding to himself, he decided to act upon what they and the doctors had said and walked up to the other boy, stopping an arm's length away from him and avoiding the other boy's personal space.

Naruto then smiled—a _polite_ smile—and said, "Hello! My name's Naruto! It's nice to meet you!" and he extended his hand halfway between them; the polite distance when shaking hands in greeting.

The other boy looked at his hand, somewhat disgusted. Or at least, that's what it looked like to Naruto. Then he grunted something like, "Hn," and turned around.

Somewhat miffed and confused, Naruto looked at his hand. He was pretty sure that he had washed it, so what was wrong with it?

He sent a confused look over to Kakashi, who was leaning against the wall next to the large window and had pulled out his _Icha-Icha Paradise_ book to re-read.

Without looking up, Kakashi just shrugged in a 'what-can-you-do' fashion.

But that didn't deter Naruto; he was determined to make a good impression.

Since he already did what he was _supposed_ to do to be polite, according to the doctors, he focused on what _not_ to do, according to Koketsu and Izumo.

The main thing they had stressed was to not do anything that would cause a fight.

That would be easy. Naruto may be energetic, but he never intentionally tried to push anyone's buttons. He ABSOLUTELY would not start a fight. He wouldn't be a monster. That would just prove _them_ right.

Naruto resumed smiling and walked politely towards the other boy.

"What's your name?" Naruto asked in a polite tone. The nurses had told him that it was okay to ask, as long as he spoke in a _polite_ voice.

The boy glanced at him, an air of superiority surrounded him and he clipped, "Sasuke."

Even the way he SPOKE was as if the boy—Sasuke—thought he was superior! That was _not_ polite, according to Koketsu and Izumo.

Shrugging it off, Naruto tried again, "So how are you today, Sasuke?"

Sasuke 'tsked' him and rolled his eyes.

That angered Naruto. What the hell was this guy's problem? Naruto was _trying_ to be polite! But this guy was ignoring him! Wasn't _Sasuke_ the one who was visiting _Naruto_?!

Refusing to let this guy get to him, Naruto smiled at him and asked, "So what's up?"

Then Sasuke finally answered by asking a question in return in a rather blunt tone, "Were you the one who was screaming last Wednesday?"

Unprepared for THAT line of questioning, Naruto's smile faltered.

Quickly, though, a fake one took its place as he answered, "Uh, yeah, why?" He figured that there was no use in lying because Kakashi was in the room, though he was weary about the question.

Sasuke turned to face him completely and Naruto got a better look at him. Sasuke was wearing all black; loose jeans, a leather jacket, boots, and black eyeliner. It didn't daunt him, Gaara wore at least twice the amount of eyeliner to hide the dark circles surrounding his eyes due to his insomnia.

"Why?" Sasuke asked.

Confused, Naruto cocked his head to the side and asked, "Why what?"

"Why were you screaming?" Sasuke asked in the same blunt manner.

"What? I'm not telling you!" Naruto automatically retorted, then clamped his mouth shut as he remembered that that wasn't a polite thing to do.

"Why not?" Sasuke demanded.

"Why do you want to know?!" Naruto shot back, forgetting about being polite.

"Because I want to know." Sasuke replied, as if it were obvious. Like _that_ would make Naruto begging to tell him all his inner secrets.

"Well tough, suck it up—" Naruto had to cut himself off. He was about to rightly call Sasuke a bastard, but then he remembered that insulting the other in a conversation would not be polite.

"Not for free." Sasuke deadpanned.

This confused Naruto. Not for free what? Was he offering Sasuke a job?

Deciding to ignore the confusing response, Naruto said in an effort to regain whatever hope he had for a good impression, "I'm sorry, but it's personal. I'd appreciate it if you stop asking." It took all his mental restraint from kicking this guy's ass.

_Naruto_ had paid attention to learning how to be polite, and _Sasuke_ seemed to have completely missed that lesson! He didn't introduce himself, he ignored Naruto's attempts to be nice, he was acting superior to Naruto for no reason, AND he wasn't minding his own business!

As if to further Naruto's point of this guy not following proper adequate, Sasuke smirked and said sarcastically, "So the idiot knows big words like 'appreciate'."

He just insulted Naruto!

"BASTARD!" Naruto shouted as he lunged for said bastard.

He was aiming for Sasuke's jaw, but the bastard dodged and tripped Naruto, making him fall onto the bed.

Snarling a little, Naruto whipped around and placed his weight on the bed so he could aim a kick to the bastard's chest.

But the bastard dodged again.

Sasuke grabbed his ankle and pulled so Naruto fell off the bed in a heap.

With a grunt, Naruto pushed himself back into standing position using the bed as his support.

Blue eyes glared with hatred at black eyes.

Once Naruto saw those eyes though, he froze.

Those eyes may have been a shade darker, but they were so _similar_ to _HIS_ eyes!

Only, they weren't the gentle gaze from when _HE_ was rescuing Naruto, Gaara, and everyone else. It was the same dispassionate glare from when _HE_ was a part of _THEM_!

Scrambling backwards, only to fall on the bed again, Naruto's eyes widened in fear.

He remembered how _HIS_ eyes looked at him as _THEY_ held him _THERE_.

Naruto shut his eyes and grabbed his head.

He wasn't _there_! He wasn't _there_! He wasn't _there_! He wasn't _there_! He wasn't _there_! He was SAFE! SAFE! KASKASHI was with him! GAARA was in the next room! SECURITY would notice _them_! He wasn't _there_! He wasn't _there_! He wasn't _there_! He wasn't _th_—"

"You're not hurt are you…_scaredy-cat_?"

Sasuke's voice cut through his thoughts and replaced it with only one: THE BASTARD INSULTED HIM AGAIN!

"BASTARD!" Naruto yelled, pouncing off the bed to kick this bastard's ass!

…Or he was going to, except Kakashi had grabbed onto his shirt's collar.

"ACK!" Naruto choked as he desperately tried to disentangle himself from the restricting cloth.

"So sorry to interrupt the fun, but Sasuke's hour is up." Kakashi said as he placed his other hand on Naruto's shoulder to keep him from twisting around anymore.

"But Kakashiiiiiiii! I was about to kick his ass!" Naruto whined, trying to twist the other way so he could appeal to his doctor using his unbeatable puppy eyes.

"Like a dunce like you had a chance." Sasuke arrogantly scoffed.

"BASTARD!" Naruto resumed his attempts to break free from Kakashi's grip so he could KICK THIS GUY'S ASS!

But Kakashi's grip tightened. The doctor applied a little muscle and pushed Naruto down a little so that he had to use both legs to stand up to fight the pressure, lest he be pushed to the ground.

"It's time to say bye-bye now, boys." Kakashi said in a pleasant tone. He squeezed Naruto's shoulder again and removed his arms.

Naruto stopped fighting to break free. He understood that once Kakashi takes Sasuke out of his room, he'd be bastard-free.

Kakashi then walked passed him and angled himself so that he was blocking the boys' view of each other.

The psychiatrist then waited—not more than three seconds—for Sasuke to turn around and start leaving.

Naruto held back a sigh of relief; he didn't want Sasuke to know how much he got to him.

Before Sasuke left the room, Naruto heard him murmur, "Idiot."

"BASTARD!" Naruto shouted out before the door closed.

* * *

**And that was the chapter.**

**You know, the French Club on campus should really get me a cake or something.**

**During the activities fair for campus clubs to advertise their club-ness and get new members, the French Club and the German club shared a table. My best friend is the vice president of the German club, so I and my two roommates hung out with him while we ate our food that was provided during the fair.**

**Then he stepped out to get some food and to see how his fraternity was doing, so, seeing that no one was at the table, I volunteered myself to man the club table.**

**I also noticed that no one was at the French Club part, so I manned both parts. Through natural advertising talent, I got the German club about half a page of new members signed up before my friend returned, but I got the French club an entire roster page—front AND back—despite not being in the club and knowing nothing about it other than that you don't havta speak French to be in it.**

**I would've joined, but I'm not into French. 'Sides, I'm already busy with classes and helping a friend start up a new club. But another friend, who I convinced to sign up, went to the first meeting and said it wasn't all that good. But they should still get me a cake or something.**

**Anyhoo, thank you for reading and a special thanks to those who review! I write for you guys!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**For birthdays, I'm making sure that a bunch of us go to restaurants for birthday dinner! It makes us feel loved n_n However, my own birthday is on the last day of finals =( and I had an 8am exam. Luckily, it is just a speech and not the hardest exam like last year where I told the professor I expected an A because he ruined my birthday. But this year will be great because I, and us other late December birthdays, celebrated at a restaurant already! I felt so loved ^_^**

**So here's me spreading the love, so onwards with the chapter!**

* * *

Itachi Uchiha was waiting patiently in the lobby of the Konoha Godaime Hokage Mental Hospital.

He had snagged himself quite a comfortable chair, too. He had come a little early to make sure he got this seat; the last time he picked up Sasuke from his appointment with Kakashi, Itachi had come within five minutes of the session ending and had seen the comfiest chair, but someone was sitting in it!

Although he hid disappointment as a true Uchiha, he had vowed to never be deprived of his newly declared favorite chair.

So Itachi had arrived early today, but he did not expect to wait for much longer, even though he did bring a book, because he knew Kakashi. And if he had to say one thing it was about his old friend, it was that Kakashi was punctual with deadlines. Arrivals and starting up, not so much, but the psychiatrist never missed a deadline or failed to leave on time.

When Itachi finished a page of his book, a collection of Edgar Allen Poe's greatest works, he glanced at the clock on the opposite of him. It was only a couple more minutes until Sasuke's session was over.

While he was looking at the clock, a child waiting by her mother, who was shopping at the mini floral section of the gift shop, had caught his eye.

The girl looked woefully bored as her mother was deciding between two bouquets; each apparently from a different florist. The little girl seemed to have already examined all of the items around her, so she was reduced to spinning in a circle and staring widely at the directions she sporadically stopped at.

She had already re-inspected the candy nearby that she was apparently now allowed to have, and was spinning again. She was not spinning quickly though, and clearly not intent on getting dizzy. She was pointing her extended finger ahead of her so she knew where to look.

She stopped spinning and her finger was pointing at the wall with the clock on it. Itachi put a tab on his page in his book and closed it as he observed the little girl attempt to read the time. She tried using her fingers to count, but abandoned that as she opted for pointing at the large numbers and mimicking the two clock hands with her own. It was adorable and it reminded Itachi of how he had taught Sasuke how to tell time when his baby brother was younger and cuter.

Soon enough, the little girl had returned to pointing her finger ahead of herself and spinning. This time, her finger was pointing at Itachi when she finished spinning.

Itachi smiled pleasantly and offered a small wave. The little girl returned an even larger smile and a more excitable wave, full of the infectious excitement of a child. Even her mother noticed her daughter's waving from her bouquets. When her mother looked in the direction that her daughter was waving at, she herself offered Itachi a polite nod; which he returned.

That was one thing Itachi enjoyed about this wing of the hospital. Unlike those he associated with during his rebellious years, or even those people he regularly associated with nowadays at work, people at the hospital treated each other with common courtesy and offered smiles.

Itachi was tempted to offer his own opinion towards the mother's flower predicament, but a quick glance at the clock alerted him that the session would be over in two minutes.

It was no matter, though, as the mother seemed to realize her daughter's boredom and had asked for her opinion. The daughter had immediately chosen one of the bouquets—the one apparently arranged by Yamanaka Florists—and the mother made to pay for it. Before they left, though, the little girl offered Itachi another smile and a wave.

Itachi let the smallest of smiles grace his lips; the Uchiha in him prevented him from allowing the smile to spread. It was rare that Itachi was able to witness such vitality of life and carefree spirit. The last time…

The small smile had left Itachi's face. The last time he had faced such a spirit, he had watched the fire of life almost die out of despair, leaving only shadows that were painful to remember.

The Uchiha mentally berated himself: those days were over now. He was now the president and CEO of Uchiha Corps and the legal guardian of Sasuke.

Speaking of his baby brother, a quick glance at the clock told him that it was three minutes passed the session ending.

Itachi leaned backwards a little so he could sneak a peek into the window of the outer doors of the psych ward. He knew that someone could only enter if they were visiting a patient, and then there was another mini lobby that mostly served as a locker room as personal items as well as unsafe clothing were placed within small lockers. Then there were another pair of doors that could only be opened by the hospital personnel.

He knew that Sasuke was visiting a patient, though he did not know—or needed to know—which patient that was. Kakashi had explained everything to him before this session. According to the psychiatrist, Sasuke was suffering from a case of, as he put it, 'whiny teenager syndrome' and needed a 'wake-up call'. Kakashi also said that Sasuke needed to _experience_ this 'wake-up call' or else Sasuke would merely feel superior to the less fortunate.

Looking through the window, Itachi saw Sasuke being escorted back to the mini lobby/locker room by Kakashi. Kakashi had his usual perpetually bored expression on his face, but Sasuke had a curious one on his; it was a combination of a little bit of satisfaction, more of annoyance, and mostly Uchiha apathy, even though the mask was slightly broken.

Kakashi closed the door after them and leaned against it, reading one of his books. When Itachi leaned a different angle, he could see Sasuke reaching into a locker and grabbing his personal items and something else. It took a minute before Itachi recognized the objects in Sasuke's hands as the chains he usually had on his black pants.

Itachi stood up and took hold of his book. He knew that Sasuke would want to leave the hospital as soon as he could; and even though he loved his newly declared favorite seat, he knew that Sasuke would not appreciate waiting.

But then Itachi remembered something else Kakashi had told him, and unlike the councilor who only wanted Sasuke to stop acting out or the psychologist who was looking out for his wallet's interests, Itachi actually listened to what Kakashi had to say.

Kakashi had told Itachi that one of the reasons that Sasuke was feeling so alone—aside from his 'whiny teenager syndrome'—after their parents died was because Sasuke did not perceive Itachi's suffering as the same as his own because Itachi was no longer acting as he did when he was simply Sasuke's brother. Now that Itachi had declared himself his baby brother's legal guardian, Itachi was focusing more on looking out for Sasuke as a guardian would rather than relating to him as a brother would, and that in turn disconnected the brotherly Itachi from Sasuke's memories with this new parental Itachi that Sasuke most likely resented.

The psychiatrist had also said that the resentment stemmed from bitter feelings from losing their parents and feeling alone. So when Itachi tried to fill the gap their parents left, Sasuke—due to his 'whiny teenager syndrome'—interpreted it as Itachi trying to replace their parents.

Part of Sasuke's recovery from 'whiny teenager syndrome' would be on part of Itachi acting more like he used to. Itachi's job, according the Kakashi, was to find the balance between 'parental Itachi' and 'brotherly Itachi', but focusing on 'brotherly Itachi' in the meantime.

Mentally nodding to himself, he sat back down—silently rejoicing to himself as he did so—because that's what he'd do if he was forced to pick Sasuke up if their mother had sent him. In fact, he would be slightly sadistic in his choice of teasing, and Kakashi was certainly encouraging brotherly sadism, so why not?

Leaning back in the chair, Itachi slightly grinned to himself; maybe he could buy it from the hospital. His chair back at work was not nearly as comfortable as this one was!

Itachi re-opened his book as he heard the outer doors opening and flipped back to the page he was on; re-reading _The Raven_, a poem he was partial to. He was even considering redecorating an office back at the mansion to fit the description of the office in _The Raven_.

As he pondered if he should purchase a real skull somehow for this office, he saw that his book was gaining a shadow that had his brother's signature hairstyle on it.

Looking up with only his eyes, Itachi asked, "Yes?"

He saw his baby brother glaring at him with black lined eyes

Itachi never understood _that_ particular trait of this rebellion. He had asked some people around the office and apparently men using eyeliner around their eyes was either 'goth' or 'emo'. To his knowledge, Sasuke was not exhibiting other traits like painting his nails black, wearing other black makeup like lipstick, or—thankfully—wearing skinny jeans.

But even though he did not understand, Itachi never commented. After all, he himself had painted his nails back in his own rebellious days; though that was more of an initiation and membership more than fashion choice.

But Sasuke was doing no more than simply glaring at Itachi, so the man being glared at simply raised an eyebrow before returning to his book.

Itachi could sense that Sasuke was attempting to use an Uchiha Glare against him, but the foolish boy was seriously out-classed in this case so it was rendered useless.

The shadow shifted a little, but Itachi paid it no mind. He was waiting for Sasuke to do more than just glare. Not that he was complaining, but he did wish that Sasuke would just hurry up. His eyes were beginning to bother him from not using his reading glasses, because he had not expected to be reading much of his book and had left his glasses at the office.

Sasuke cleared his throat, making Itachi glance up at him again.

"Yes?" Itachi repeated his question.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and he said, "Let's go."

Itachi returned to his book and answered, "No."

"No?" Sasuke asked, his incredulous tone masked by his Uchiha indifference.

"No." Itachi said again.

"Why not?" Sasuke asked with irritation spreading through his tone.

Itachi looked up to meet his baby brother's gaze and answered, "Because you didn't ask nicely."

Sasuke's eye twitched minutely, but Itachi was not paying much attention as in the corner of his eye he saw the little girl he was observing before tugging her mother's sleeve and pointing at Sasuke and Itachi.

Rolling his eyes slightly, Sasuke asked "_Can_ we go now?"

Itachi smiled and closed his book. Sasuke, thinking that Itachi was ready to go, turned towards the door.

"No." Itachi said in a cheerful voice.

Sasuke whipped his head back and glared, "_What_?" he asked with slight venom in his tone.

Itachi's smile widened a little—for Uchiha standards—and repeated, "No. You did not ask nicely."

Sasuke turned his body back to face Itachi and crossed his arms. "Yes I did." He growled, sounding a little defensive and a little like he used to when Itachi had teased him in the past.

Itachi shook his head and adopted a tone he would use with children—if he ever worked with children—and said, "No, little brother. You _did_ ask…but you did not ask _nicely_."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him. A silent way of asking 'are you serious?'.

Oh yes. Itachi _was_ serious.

To prove it, Itachi gave an _actual_ smile—much like humans would—and adopted the tone Dora the Explorer uses when asking questions and asked, "Do _you_ know how to ask nicely?"

Suddenly the little girl from before shouted out "I DO! I DO!" waving her arms wildly. Her mother most likely abandoned trying to hold her down because she was merely following her daughter as the little girl raced towards the Uchihas.

The little girl ran straight for Itachi and stood next to Sasuke, jumping up eagerly holding her hand, her eyes begging Itachi to choose her.

Smiling a little wider, Itachi pointed at the little girl and nodded.

Smiling widely, the little girl burst out, "PLEASE! You say 'PLEASE' when you wanna be polite!"

"Very good! Now, can you ask if we can leave _politely_?" Itachi asked in an amused voice.

The little girl bobbed her head up and down and said, "Can we go _PLEASE_?"

Itachi smiled and patted the girl's head and praised, "Very good."

The little girl's face lit up and she smiled widely, showing that she was missing a tooth.

Seeing such an energetic smile reminded Itachi of another smile from a couple of years ago, but those memories were overshadowed with dark pain from the guilt of knowing the reason the smile had died away.

But Itachi mentally shook the pain away as the girl's mother caught up to them and had told the little girl that it was time to go and visit someone in the hospital, gesturing towards the Yamanaka flowers in her hand.

The little girl nodded took her mother's extended hand. As they walked away, the little girl looked back at the Uchihas and waved, to which Itachi returned.

Turning back to his baby brother, Itachi gestured towards the retreating girl and said, "See? THAT'S how you ask politely."

Sasuke was truly glaring at Itachi now; not that it fazed him. Itachi was quite enjoying himself. He had no idea how much he missed teasing his baby brother and briefly thanked Kakashi in his mind. Itachi _had_ been trying to act like Sasuke's parent too much lately. This felt much more natural.

He could not, however, tell if the feeling was mutual between himself and Sasuke. Itachi knew how much he himself was enjoying this, but Sasuke looked pissed.

Whatever, Itachi was having too much fun to care much, "Well?" he asked expectantly.

Sasuke seemed to be having a mostly hidden—if Itachi weren't an Uchiha himself—battle within himself with his pride. He faced in another direction, avoiding Itachi's eyes, and grumbled out lowly, "Can we go now…_please_."

The last part was almost a growl, but Itachi took what he could get. Kakashi had said that the key to breaking 'whiny teenager syndrome' was baby steps.

Itachi nodded and stood up, leading the way towards the exit.

"Finally." Itachi heard Sasuke grumble behind him, but ignored it for now. As they walked to the car, Itachi heard the familiar light clanking of Sasuke's chains rattling—more like _tinkling_—against each other as the younger boy walked with his hands in his pockets. It sounded nothing like the rattle of real chains, but Itachi was not eager to compare them to the real thing and reminisce about the old days.

After the two got in the car Itachi drove them back home while Sasuke rode shot gun. He remembered how after the…_incident_ with their parents, Itachi had fired their drivers. Well, his own and Sasuke's drivers; his parents' driver had died as well. It had not mattered to the other drivers as Itachi had greatly recommended them to others, but if they did not ask questions and that was the important thing.

Luckily, Itachi had insisted on learning how to drive, before the _incident_ so that he could escape when he wanted to, so firing his driver did not change much. It hadn't fazed Sasuke either. In fact, his baby brother was—for lack of an Uchiha translation—excited about getting his learner's permit.

They drove in silence until they reached the highway. Then Itachi had remembered that Kakashi had told him that as part of his job of creating a balance: he needed to talk more to Sasuke. Luckily Kakashi understood that Uchihas do not do small talk and said that all Itachi had to do was to make each other tell each other what they had done that day so Sasuke would get used to the idea that Itachi was the person that he could go talk to about things like troubles or annoyances. Since it would be healthy for Sasuke, Itachi agreed, but warned that it would take a while.

"What kind of patient did Kakashi make you see?" Itachi asked, knowing that simply asking 'how was your day' would do nothing more than make his younger brother mentally roll his eyes.

He saw in his peripheral vision Sasuke turn his head slightly and raise an eyebrow. The silent way of asking 'you know?'

"He told me that you visited another patient of his and I want to know that I'm getting my money's worth." Itachi half-lied; Kakashi _did_ tell him that he would be introducing Sasuke to a patient of his for the 'wake-up call', but the elder Uchiha already knew he was getting his money's worth out of Kakashi. More, even, as Kakashi already understood 'Uchiha'.

"Tch," Sasuke scoffed.

"That bad?" Itachi asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Why do _you_ care?" Sasuke demanded, sounding somewhat incredulous.

Itachi wanted to say that he always cared and that after their parents' death, he realized just how important Sasuke was to him and that he had been trying to show Sasuke how much he cared for a while now…but according to Kakashi, Sasuke's 'whiny teenager syndrome' would only translate that as 'because I said so'.

"I told you, I want to know I'm getting my money's worth." Itachi lied seamlessly.

Sasuke was silent.

"And because I'm considering going back to that last psychologist. I think he was really getting somewhere with those sessions." Itachi lied again, and making one hell of a performance.

It had certainly attained Sasuke's attention, because his spiky head whipped around to face Itachi, who was still looking ahead to the road.

Then Sasuke faced forwards himself and said "…You're not wasting your money."

"Hn? What was that?" Itachi asked with a little hint of teasing evident in his voice.

Sasuke sighed and crossed his arms, leaning deeper into the seat, "You're not wasting your money." He repeated in a louder tone, "Kakashi—"

"Dr. Hatake." Itachi cut in, much like he used to when Sasuke decided that a tutor no longer deserved his recognition. He used to do that multiple times if he felt that the tutor was not giving him as much respect as he felt he deserved or treated him like a child. Itachi was betting on the latter for why Sasuke was calling Kakashi by his name.

"—Kakashi," Sasuke repeated a little forcefully as if Itachi had not interrupted. Itachi mentally chuckled; at least some parts of his baby brother's personality had stayed the same.

"He's kinda chill." Sasuke said in a somewhat thoughtful tone, "He's annoying, but not intrusive like those other wash-ups."

Itachi knew that was the closest Kakashi would be getting to a compliment and was impressed. His old friend must have really made an impression on his baby brother.

"And the patient?" Itachi asked, hiding how truly interested he was. He was…_curious_ as to whom Kakashi would pick to be this 'wake-up call' that Sasuke needed. Most people would agree that losing their parents—_both_ parents—was pretty bad and deserved some sulking, depressive time; though Itachi had worked through his by distractions and revenge on those he knew were accountable. So he wondered who would be 'perfect' for Sasuke's 'wake-up call'.

Sasuke fell silent for a little. Not his 'angsty teenager' silence, as Kakashi so professionally put it, but a thoughtful silence.

Finally, he spoke up again, "The patient is…interesting…He's pretty fucked up, I mean, he interrupted our last session because of all this screaming out of nowhere."

"Mm," Itachi hummed in general agreement, personally not judging the patient. When he had asked Kakashi to take on Sasuke as a patient as a favor, Kakashi had mentioned that it would be a very large favor because he was working on a fuller load than usual for the past year with a new group he and the other doctors were working with.

Surprisingly encouraged by Itachi's agreement, Sasuke continued talking, "And when I entered his room, he kept _staring_ at me, kinda like he'd seen a ghost. And later, he almost had a huge freak out after looking like he'd seen a ghost again."

"So he's scared of ghosts?" Itachi asked, trying to keep Sasuke talking as long as possible.

Sasuke shrugged, "Wouldn't say why he was so freaked…or why he was screaming before…" Itachi was about to comment when Sasuke spoke up again, "But it's probably just 'cause Naruto's in the loony bin and is scared of his own shadow or something crazy like that."

If Itachi were not an Uchiha, he would have slammed on the breaks when he heard that name.

But he _was_ an Uchiha, so he instead, he just took a moment to compose himself before asking, "What…was that name again?"

He almost wished that Sasuke would not answer. But more than that, Itachi hoped that Sasuke had aid the wrong name by accident.

Sasuke raised an eye brow at the little pause, but did not say anything, but rather asked, "Can I even tell you his full name?" in an honestly questioning tone.

Itachi did not answer at first.

He was too busy keeping himself from openly sweating, though he was gripping the steering wheel rather tight.

After he was sure that he would not stutter, he answered, "I'm not sure. But you are not his doctor, so there is technically no law against you telling me his name."

Sasuke was taking too long to deliberate.

Too. Long.

FINALLY, Sasuke grunted his agreement to what Itachi had reasoned and said, "Naruto Uzumaki."

Itachi's grip on the steering wheel was so hard that his knuckles turned white.

Of _course_ it was Uzumaki.

He needed to make a phone call later.

**HELL**

Kakashi Hatake was making his way towards Naruto's room with Ambien CR, Naruto's new sleeping pills. They had been reluctant to start using sleeping pills because Naruto was still sixteen so the effectiveness was not completely ensured, and there was also the chance that he would find the sleeping pills addictive or become dependent on them.

They had tried putting off sleep medications for a while now, preferring to use more natural forms or sleep aides like herbs in tea, strict sleep schedule, aroma therapy, and a sleeping cap along with a stuffed toy. They had gotten pretty creative over the months when it came to trying to get Naruto to sleep.

It had worked for a while, but Naruto grew a tolerance to the natural herbal tea—or 'sleepy time tea' as Naruto had named it—as well as other natural methods for sleeping. Most of the time, they helped him _fall_ asleep, but now did nothing to help him _stay_ asleep.

Thus the Ambien CR.

This sleeping pill had two layers; one layer for fast-acting sleeping aids for getting Naruto to fall asleep, and the second layer of slow-dissolving sleeping aids for keeping Naruto asleep.

Kakashi was honestly hesitant to use sleeping pills for Naruto, knowing that there was a high chance that his favorite patient could get dependent on them, but he felt like he had no choice.

Lately, Naruto's nightmares have been getting worse, or at least more frequent. Kakashi was not entirely sure as Naruto had yet to fully tell him what his nightmares were about apart from being taken back _there_. Anything beyond that was a near mystery to the psychiatrist because Naruto point blank refused to talk about _them_ or what had happened _there_.

Kakashi had a vague idea of what situation Naruto had been in based on a combination of the vague details he was able to acquire from the boy himself as well as what he was able to infer outside of their sessions.

Naruto had been brought to the hospital about a year ago along with seven other people by the police. According to the officers, the group had been dropped off nearby the police station by an unidentified vehicle. A few of the members of the group had been injured—Naruto the worst of all—so the officers took those members of the group to the closest hospital; Konoha Hokage Hospital.

The officers had attempted to take only the injured, but those uninjured refused to stay behind; insisting as going in one group. Acquiescing, the officers attempted to ask questions—like who they were, where did they come from, who dropped them off, and how were the others injured—but no one answered any questions beyond their names.

Surprisingly, every one of them was connected with powerful and influential politicians and was a part of a massive open kidnapping case!

Once their parents, lovers, or siblings came to retrieve them, another round of questions were asked; are you okay, what happened, who took you, were you hurt, and other variations of what happened. But like before, no questions were answered beyond assuring that they were okay; or will be okay.

All eight members of the formerly-kidnapped group that were injured remained in the Konoha Hokage Hospital, but the uninjured ones were sent for evaluations in the Konoha Godaime Hokage Mental Hospital wing. Once again, no questions were answered but rather obstinately—and sometimes near desperately—avoided. Some members of the group, like Gaara, had stayed in the Godaime wing of the hospital while others were discharged.

Curiously, though, every last member of the previously-kidnapped group had insisted on visiting Naruto, who had yet to awaken, and stay by his side until he did.

Naruto…was a special case, even amongst the largest kidnapping case in memory.

While everyone else had their politician family members to claim them—even Gaara, whose parents were dead, but his siblings had come for him—Naruto had no one.

A couple of months before Naruto was found, about two years after he had first been taken, his parents Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki were murdered. Their bodied had been found in a ditch and at the time their killers were still at large. It was not until a few months afterwards were the murders connected to the infamous gang Akatsuki.

When Naruto DID awaken, he had surprised everyone from doctors to his fellow group members that had brought him to the hospital and had kept diligent watch over him while he slept; something about 'owing him'.

When Naruto woke up, he had immediately began screaming at everyone to leave him; to get away from him. He gave no explanation other than pleading people to stay away from him. Though he only said this to the group members who continued to visit him; he refused to speak to anyone else besides them.

Even though Naruto was in such a state, those group members had kept a closed mouth about what had happened, despite police officers, doctors, and even their family members asking them on behalf of Naruto's health. They had absolutely refused to speak about the subject, claiming that they knew that their silence was for the best even if everyone else thought otherwise and that they _were_ thinking about Naruto's safety.

The only person who would talk about Naruto's condition was Gaara. It seemed as if the group had collectively agreed that Gaara be the one who spoke for Naruto seeing as he was the closest to him and would be staying at the hospital along with the blonde.

But Gaara would say very little. The most helpful thing that he said was that he honestly did not know what had made Naruto act like this as apparently he was acting normal—as 'normal' as anyone could be while kidnapped—until _they_ took him away from the group.

Other than that, Gaara basically kept his mouth shut to Kakashi. The psychiatrist suspected that Gaara, as well as the other members of the group like Utakata or Killer B, talked about what had happened to them with their own doctors, but the doctors would speak with one another because of doctor-patient confidentiality.

Kakashi could understand the group's loyalty to one another to an extent, after all, when a group has been held captive for an extended period of time like this group had, trust becomes key and they feel like they can only trust other members of the group. But it had been a year and all Kakashi could get out of his patient was that he did not want _them_ to take him back _there_.

And now Naruto's nightmares were getting the better of him and causing Kakashi to have to prescribe him sleeping pills.

As Kakashi neared Naruto's door with the Ambien CR, he heard Naruto's voice as well as Gaara's and decided to eavesdrop.

"I don't get it, Gaara! YOU barely sleep and YOU'RE not tired all the damn time!" Naruto's voice sounded exasperated, showing just how tired he truly was and how close he was to Gaara as the blonde would usually try to force more energy into his tone the more tired he got.

"That's because I have insomnia, Naruto." Gaara's monotone voice was patient, as if he had explained this already; which he very well might have.

"But—But! But maybe I'M getting insomnia too!" Naruto insisted.

"No you're not." Gaara shot down.

"How do you know?" Naruto asked, stifling back a yawn. Rather unsuccessfully, by the sound of it.

There was a pause, then, "Because I've had trouble sleeping my entire life, and you cannot sleep because of your nightmares."

"But _you_ get nightmares too!" Naruto's voice sounded pleading.

Kakashi assumed Gaara nodded as he said, "Yes, but they are not as frequent as before while yours are only increasing."

Naruto was silent after that.

Kakashi was considering knocking on the door and offering his favorite patient some relief by the form of prescription drugs, but then he heard Gaara speak up again.

"What are the nightmares about?" Gaara asked. It was monotonic, but Kakashi could hear the concern in Gaara's voice.

Naruto was silent.

But Gaara was not finished, "We are all worried about you. You didn't use to have sleeping problems. You were the one who convinced Yugito that it was safe for her to sleep."

"…Gaara…" Naruto's voice sounded weak.

"It wasn't until you were taken from the rest of us—" Gaara continued.

"—Gaara!" Naruto's voice sounded sharply.

"—did you start having these nightmares." Gaara continued as if Naruto hadn't interrupted.

Naruto was silent in response.

"What happened after they took you from us? What did they do?!" Gaara's monotone broke, showing just how concerned he was for his friend.

"NO!" Naruto shouted.

And Kakashi took this as his cue to enter the room.

He tapped the door three times before entering. When he closed the door behind him, he saw Naruto with his hands against his ears, sitting on his bed against the pillows. Gaara was sitting at the end of the bed.

"I think this isn't the best time for us to be discussing these things." Kakashi lightly admonished. Naruto brightened up a little while Gaara remained impassive, but Kakashi assumed that he was frustrated.

"Really?!" Naruto asked excitedly, albeit slightly exhausted; happy at the prospect of having a Kakashi on his side on this reoccurring issue.

Kakashi nodded, growing serious, "You need a couple nights of a full night's sleep before your mind can fully handle processing these memories to move passed them."

Naruto's excitement fell, though it was hard to tell if it was over the fear of the nightmares or the prospect of having to talk about what _they_ had done _there_; probably both.

"And to help you sleep," Kakashi took out the bottle of Ambien CR of his pocket and presented it to his patient.

Naruto looked at it curiously, but then his eyes sparked with recognition after a few moments.

"Oh yeah! That…what's it called…" he looked down in concentration, then glanced back up at Kakashi and waved a hand at him and shouted, "Don't tell me!" then returned to thinking, "It's uhh…uhhh… Amby CPR!"

Gaara gave Naruto a bemused look.

Kakashi chuckled and shook his head, "No, Naruto. This is your Ambien CR."

Naruto flushed in embarrassment, but smiled it off as he scratched the back of his neck.

Kakashi then smiled at Gaara and asked, "I'm sorry, Gaara, but I need to explain to Naruto how his new pills work."

Gaara met his gaze and said, "Then maybe I should stay here."

Kakashi considered the thought: Naruto would probably forget, and Gaara would most likely be the one who would remind him about his pills…but there were still things that had to be discussed solely between doctor and patient first.

Kakashi shook his head and said, "All you'll need to remind him is to go to the nurse's station so they can give him his dosage so he can take it before sleeping and to remind him that the effect is comparatively fast, but not instantaneous."

Gaara nodded while Naruto burst out, "I'm still here, you know!"

Kakashi turned to face Naruto and said while still smiling, "Yes I do know, but I also know how forgetful your memory is."

Naruto huffed, crossing his arms and looking to the side with a small, frustrated pout evident on his face.

Gaara got up to leave, but before he did, he turned back to Naruto and said, "I hope you get some sleep tonight."

Naruto smiled in return and promised he would try.

After Gaara left, Kakashi went to the bathroom and filled a glass of water.

When he returned to Naruto's bedside, he gave the glass to the blonde and also handed him the bottle of pills.

"Now understand that I am only giving you the bottle now so you can recognize the bottle and the pills. The nurses will be in charge of handling your doses, which will be one pill." Kakashi informed his patient as he pointed to the bottle now in Naruto's hands.

Naruto nodded as he studied the bottle, trying to read what it said without much interest.

"Now what did I just say?" Kakashi asked in a somewhat teasing tone.

"Geez, Kakashi! I'm not a freaking child!" Naruto whined, squinting his eyes a bit.

Kakashi shrugged and said, "Humor me."

Naruto stuck out his tongue before tilting his head to the side, thinking. "Uhhhh," he said, squinting harder, "take only one Amby CPR a day?"

Kakashi smiled and said, "Yes, I did say to take your Ambien CR only once a day." Naruto flushed a little in embarrassment for mispronouncing the name again. "Do you know what _else_ I said?"

The flushed expression disappeared and the thinking one returned, "Uhhhhh…THIS is the bottle I use!" Naruto exclaimed, showing Kakashi the bottle of pills.

"Yes, very good Naruto!" Kakashi patted the blonde on his head while Naruto pouted a little at the treatment, "But I ALSO said that the _nurses_ will be in charge of your dosage, which is?"

"One!" Naruto shouted, happy to have known the answer.

Kakashi nodded; a simple smile on his face, though hidden by his medical mask.

"Alright, now I'm going to tell you how they work—"

"_Simply_!" Naruto cut in, as he usually did whenever Kakashi would explain things to him.

Kakashi nodded and continued, "These have two layers," he held up two fingers, "The first," he put down one finger," is to help you _fall_ asleep. The second," Kakashi held up the second finger so he once again had two up, "is to help you _stay_ asleep. Now repeat."

"The first," Naruto mimicked holding up one finger, "is to help _fall_ asleep. The second," he held up two fingers as Kakashi did, "is to help _stay_ asleep."

"That's right. Now, do you want to take them now, or wait a little while?" Kakashi asked as Naruto yawned.

"I'll take them now." Naruto replied, trying to open the bottle.

When he finally did, Kakashi asked, "And how many are you taking?"

"Geez Kakashi, I _know_ it's ONE!" Naruto said, though not in a frustrated tone; more of a hurried one.

Kakashi nodded as Naruto took out only one pill and maneuvered the bottle onto his nightstand and grabbed the glass of water Kakashi had given him before. Then Naruto took his pill and drank a couple sips of the water, or more like leaving only a couple of sips left in the glass.

After he placed the glass back on the nightstand, he looked at Kakashi expectantly with his blue eyes and asked, "Now what?"

Kakashi chuckled, "Now you start getting ready for bed. Then you lie down, and try to go to sleep. The pill helps you go to sleep faster, not makes you fall asleep instantaneously."

Naruto squinted and cocked his head to the side, "What?"

"The pill won't make you fall asleep all of a sudden," Kakashi reworded, "it takes some time and you need to be ready for bed."

"Ohhhhh." Naruto said in understanding. Then he got up from his bed so he could brush his teeth in the bathroom.

Kakashi then reached under Naruto's bed, getting the blonde's personal sleeping aids that he had hidden, probably to make himself seem more mature from when Sasuke had visited him. He smiled affectionately at the sleeping hat and a stuffed version of himself that Sakura and Naruto had made together one time when she visited him on one of her days off.

When Naruto returned from the bathroom, he saw his stuffed Kakashi in the arms of the real Kakashi and blushed. He then silently asked for his stuffed toy back by walking up to the psychiatrist and holding out his hand.

"I don't know why you hid this under the bed. It is quite well done, and rather handsome, too." Kakashi noted as he handed over the stuffed version of himself to Naruto.

Naruto held it closer to himself and mumbled something.

"I'm sorry, what?" Kakashi asked since he did not hear what Naruto had said.

"That bastard would have laughed at me." Naruto said a little louder, looking away.

"And why would he have done that?" Kakashi asked as Naruto crawled into bed.

"Because he's a bastard!" Naruto shouted out as he situated himself on the bed.

"A bastard?" Kakashi repeated.

"Yea! A total bastard! He didn't follow _any_ of the politeness rules! ! He didn't introduce himself, he ignored my attempts to be nice, he was acting superior to me for no reason, AND he wasn't minding his own business! Not to mention _insulting_ me for no damn reason! That's a bastard right there!" Naruto exclaimed, waving his arms at points to emphasize himself.

"So that means that he would have laughed at the mini me?" Kakashi asked, gesturing towards the small, stuffed version of himself in Naruto's arms.

Naruto nodded immediately and exclaimed, "Absolutely!"

"Why do you say that?" Kakashi asked in a calm voice.

Naruto groaned, "Kakashiiiiiiii," he whined, "don't get all analytical on me now."

Kakashi held up his hands in front of him and said, "Sorry, sorry. I'll stop now."

Naruto nodded wearily, though Kakashi knew that it was from his previous exhaustion rather than the pill working.

"Alright, I'm going to go now. Let me know if the pill works or not." Kakashi said as he got up.

"'Nighty'night." Naruto called out sleepily.

"Good night, Naruto." Kakashi called back as he opened the door.

He was unsurprised to see Gaara waiting outside the doorway.

"The pill should help him fall asleep faster, though it will make him loopy for a bit. But then the pill should help him stay asleep. Let me know how well it works." Kakashi instructed Naruto's best friend.

Gaara nodded and proceeded to go into the room Kakashi had just left. Even though Gaara was Baki's patient and not his own, Kakashi often talked with the red head because even though the half of the initial group the two had arrived with had left—though they did visit from time to time—Gaara was still Naruto's unofficial representative and he was the one who would relay what Naruto was actually going through if the blonde lied to Kakashi.

Knowing that Naruto was in good hands, Kakashi started walking to his office.

While on the way, he wondered just how much Sasuke visiting Naruto would affect them both. Sasuke, Kakashi knew, would greatly benefit from this as Naruto was the perfect wakeup call for him. Plus, Naruto was willful and stubborn enough for Sasuke to not always get his way which would go a long way for curing his whiny teenager syndrome. Naruto, surprisingly, was showing signs of benefitting from this as well.

According to Gaara, Naruto had an abrasive and rather cheeky side to him where he would absolutely not allow people to needlessly insult others or be a general prude for no visible reason. But this was before Naruto was taken away from the kidnapped group by _them_ and ever since then had become comparatively meek.

Sasuke had brought out this side of him again as well as a more energetic side in general. This would also show Naruto how to socialize and deal with people again. It already had done some good as according to the nurses—and the murses Koketsu and Izumo—Naruto had gone around the floor asking everyone what would be the appropriate way to make the best impression of himself.

Kakashi was proud of Naruto, and keen on seeing just how motivated Sasuke would be during their sessions now that he knew that visiting Naruto would be the reward. The psychiatrist did not know exactly why Sasuke was so eager to learn about Naruto, but for the moment the intent did not seem malicious but rather curious so he made a note to learn more about it later and take advantage of it for now.

When he got inside his office, he noticed that his phone's 'messages' light was blinking. Not that it was anything new as Kakashi rarely spent time in his office, preferring to work with his patients in their rooms or where they felt more comfortable.

He sat down at his desk and picked up the phone and pressed a few buttons so he could listen to his messages.

The first message was from Tsunade, reminding him of a meeting later in the week and telling him to not be late; to which Kakashi resented. He did not _plan_ to be late. Fate just decided his schedule for him at times.

The second message was from his childhood 'friend'—annoyance—Gai Might, who was challenging him to another 'battle of wills' at the gym he owned. He had insisted long ago that Kakashi become a member, to which Kakashi did and would occasionally work out at to keep in shape, but it was a decision he would frequently regret because Gai would assume that Kakashi's membership meant his willingness to participate in these 'battle of wills'.

The third message was from an old classmate in graduate school, Tenzō, with a question for him. Kakashi was a senior while Tenzō was a freshman and Tenzō would frequently ask questions. Now that Kakashi _and_ Tenzō had both graduated, the questions became less frequent, but sometimes Tenzō would still ask questions, like now.

The final message was from Itachi, whose message was a simple 'Call me when you can.'

Shrugging, as the other messages could wait, Kakashi dialed Itachi's number, expecting the elder Uchiha to ask how the progress was going with his younger brother.

The phone rang once and a half before Itachi answered, "Yes?"

"It's Kakashi." Kakashi said, not bothering with a greeting as it would be lost on the Uchiha.

There was a slight pause—_strange_—then, "I appreciate you calling back so quickly."

Kakashi hadn't been paying attention when the recording offered him the time and date of the phone calls, but did not push it and rather asked, "So what do you need to talk about?"

Itachi sighed a little and said with a slight hesitation, "It's about…one of your patients…"

That threw Kakashi through a loop. Why would Itachi care about his other patients? But he did not let that deter him as he asked, "Yes?"

There was a longer pause before Itachi asked with greater hesitation, "Is one of your patients…Naruto Uzumaki?"

* * *

**And that was the chapter!**

**So last year, my finals was on my birthday week; this year too. LAST year, though, my birthday was in the middle of the week and I had exams before, on the day, and after my birthday. AND it was my hardest exam! So I told the professor that he owed me an A because he was ruining my birthday. THIS year, my birthday is on the last day of exams. My professor had gotten me all excited because he said that the exam would be on a Monday instead of the expected Friday, my birthday. But then he said that he was mistaken and it WOULD be on Friday. I was all 'NOOOOOO' because I had already made plans to go home and be with my family. Now instead of spending my birthday at home, I spent the majority of it at school. So help makes it a happy anniversary of escaping the womb by reviewing!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**I admit it: I have an addiction to Lays Potato Chips. It's my Crack. I love it so much that for my birthday a friend asked me what to buy me and I said Lays Potato Chips, and she bought me two medium bags and I got so excited, complete with jumping up and down and bragging about them. I am also totally bribe-able with them. A couple of us were playing Slender, and—naturally—freaking out. I was challenged to play and I refused because I am very jumpy; **_**especially**_** with SlenderMan! Two friends got me to play, though, by bribing me with two giant bags of Lays Potato Chips. They were both gone within a week.**

**Anyhoo, Onwards with the chapter!**

* * *

Tsunade sat in her office ignoring the seemingly ever-rising stack of paper work she had moved to the side of her fancy desk. She was quite proud of herself for becoming the founder and Head of the Konoha Godaime Hokage Mental Hospital wing of Konoha Hospital. But she sometimes felt like the work was not worth the title.

She missed working with patients. She could still visit them occasionally, and technically work with them; but she would only be called to work with the hardest cases. Those were rare, though. Nowadays, she spent her time with paper work, regulating patient cases to other doctors, keeping the doctors in line, overseeing the budgets, working with the other Heads of the other branches of Konoha Hospital, and finding new ways to avoid all that.

So when there was a knock on the door, she wasted no time inviting the new distraction from paper work inside.

However, she scowled when she saw that it was Dr. Kakashi Hatake walking inside.

"Kakashi," she glared at the man, "where were you _exactly_ two hours ago?"

"Mmm?" Kakashi hummed light-heartedly, "Exactly?"

Tsunade glared harder. She hated it when one of her most brilliant doctors was difficult like this. It wasn't as if she could fire him, since his track record was one of the best out of all those who worked for her, and he knew this. But sometimes she wished she could just so that the threat would be valid.

"Ah yes. Judging by the position of the Sun, and how close Jupiter is to the Moon in the night sky, I would say that _exactly_ two hours ago I was on Earth." Kakashi told her with a smile.

Tsunade wanted to punch his jaw so hard that he could never smile again.

"I _mean_ where were you when you were SUPPOSED to be at the meeting? I even called you yesterday reminding you to not be late!"

Kakashi waved an arm as if to dismiss the matter, "On my way to the meeting, I was suddenly visited by a spirit of a young girl who beseeched me to help her find her lost engagement ring so that her spirit may pass on."

"Bullshit," Tsunade spat, "you lost track of time out in the garden while thinking about your patients, past and present."

"If you knew all that then why bother to ask?" Kakashi asked in the same light-hearted tone.

Tsunade sighed. There wasn't any point in trying to get a serious answer out of the man unless he deemed the topic to be serious. "It was a progress report meeting of sorts. While you're here, care to tell me how your patients are improving or what is needed for them to improve?"

Kakashi was silent for a moment, before answering, "The majority of my patients are improving, and some are almost ready to leave. Sai in particular has improved a lot ever since he learned how to properly express his feelings through his art. He'll need only a couple more weeks until he can leave, after he can go through a group session without insulting anyone's genitals."

Tsunade nodded, she suspected as much when she was walking passes patients' rooms to avoid her assistant, Shizune, and noticed more abstract artworks than rather detailed naked figures.

"…And?" she asked, sensing there was more to the report.

Kakashi gave a near inaudible sigh and looked towards the ceiling as he shoved his hands into his white coat's pockets. "I got a phone call," he said.

When he didn't elaborate, Tsunade raised her eyebrows. "Yes?" she asked, attempting to prod him into continue.

His visible eye closed as he said, "It was a call about Naruto."

"Naruto Uzumaki?" Tsunade asked, surprised. To her knowledge, Naruto Uzumaki didn't have anyone outside of the hospital who would call for him. The boy did not have any family members anymore; not even his Godfather, Jiraiya, who was unfortunately killed by the Akatsuki shortly after linking Naruto's parents' deaths to the infamous group.

Tsunade had grown very fond of Naruto, having been the one to break him out of his shell of sorts. Jiraiya had sometimes spoken about him, but Tsunade hadn't met him until he was brought to her hospital. She had been called in to help because Naruto had refused to speak to anyone with the exception of those he had arrived with, and that was to tell—_beg_—them to leave him alone.

After he was properly bandaged up, Naruto was transferred to Konoha Godaime Hokage Mental Hospital. When he arrived, Naruto retreated into himself further. He would barely react to the nurses, but would frequently flinch away when they touched him to treat his wounds. But at least he would allow them to do as much because he was near inconsolable whenever a male doctor was present; or any male in general.

Naruto would back away as far as his injured body would let him, one time succeeding in falling off the bed and retreating to the corner of the room. He would scream at them to leave him alone, and was once reduced to tears when the male doctors continued to approach him to treat his re-opened wounds. He begged them to _please_ leave him alone and that he wouldn't cause any more trouble if they wouldn't hurt him anymore.

That was when Tsunade was called in. She had hoped that Naruto would respond positively to a female doctor rather than a male doctor.

And she had been right, partially; like with the nurses, Naruto bore little to no negative reaction towards her. The only problem was that he barely reacted at all. The only times he did react was whenever nurses or other female doctors with short hair would approach him. It was not a violent reaction, like with male doctors, but rather Naruto purposefully trying to avoid them and covering up his ears while squeezing his eyes shut whenever they would approach. But he seemingly had little to no problem with females with long hair and would only flinch when they had to touch him to help his healing injuries.

After Naruto had healed physically, Tsunade was able to focus on healing him mentally. Normally, she would have questioned her own involvement in being unethical or not because the patient was extended family of Jiraiya, who she considered family. But this was not a normal case and she had never met the boy in person so her worries were quickly discarded. They were soon replaced, however, by worries about wondering if she could even do anything because of how unique this case was to her.

Eventually, after a week or so of nothing, Tsunade had decided to make camp in Naruto's new room, in a sense. She had a desk and an extra bed brought in and stayed in the room with him. She would leave occasionally, because she had noticed that Naruto was uncomfortable eating in front of people as well as leaving to go to the bathroom. It seemed as if he was expecting to be punished every time he noticeably moved, so she would leave for extended periods of time and let Naruto ease into her presence.

It paid off, eventually, little by little. Within the first two days, Tsunade had noticed that Naruto seemed to greatly enjoy the view out of the window. So, she moved his bed closer to the window, which he seemed to appreciate. At least, he sat calmly on his bed looking out at the view rather than curling under the blankets and sending her periodic suspicious glances then continuing to ignore everything else.

At first, Tsunade had some trepidation about this particular form of therapy, if it could even be called that. She had little to no idea what this boy had endured, and could only infer that he had been kidnapped and tortured from the way he and the others had come to her care, and that it was probably done by men judging by how Naruto reacted to men. There must have also been some females present as he clearly did not like being touched by women either. She did not know if being under near constant supervision was detrimental or not. Just when she was beginning to seriously reconsider this course of action, Naruto had surprised her.

He asked for cup of ramen.

It may not have been much, but Tsunade recognized what a huge step that was for Naruto, asking someone for food and trusting them to make it and bring it back for him. It was a giant leap of faith. One that Tsunade jumped to confirm for him. She even had Shizune leave the hospital so they could get Naruto's desired brand of ramen: Ichiraku's Ramen. It was definitely worth it because Naruto had started to open up more to Tsunade and requesting more things, from food to forms of entertainment.

When the two had built a rapport of sorts with each other, Tsunade had suggested that Naruto start working with Kakashi, her best doctor available. She had known that Naruto had an aversion towards men, but she did not know how deep it was until just mentioning the male name had sent Naruto into hysterics, begging her to not let _them_ take him away.

Noticing the use of a plural pronoun rather than a singular pronoun, Tsunade's theory that Naruto was equating _any_ man to the men that had taken and tortured him was confirmed. So in order to combat this for Naruto's recovery, Tsunade employed a combination of her staying with him constantly with exposure therapy. More than once, she had felt that her therapy was more detrimental rather than recuperative, but Kakashi had mentioned to Naruto to think of staying with him as a challenge.

Even though Naruto refused to speak when Kakashi was present, the words had an obvious impact. After Kakashi had told him that it was a challenge, Naruto had pushed himself to bear Kakashi's presence for longer periods of time until Tsunade's presence was not required anymore.

Even though Naruto was no longer her patient, Tsunade still had a soft spot for the boy and paid special attention to all that pertained Naruto; yet another reason she knew she could not stay his doctor.

So that was why she was a little impatient as well as frustrated when Kakashi was not telling her about why this mysterious phone call had to do with her favorite patient.

"Well?" she asked with a slight hint of venom in her tone. She wanted an answer!

Kakashi's visible eye opened and focused on her, "We now know who put Naruto through all his trauma."

Tsunade's own eyes widened. "Wha-what?" she asked. But Kakashi didn't repeat himself. He rarely did. "Well…who was it?!" she practically shouted at the other man as she slammed her hands onto her desk and stood up.

Kakashi paused, before answering, "The Akatsuki."

"Akatsuki…" Tsunade whispered as she fell back into her chair. "Haven't they done enough to him?" she asked in the same hushed voice. Those abominations upon society had already been linked to the murder of the Namikazes, Naruto's parents. And now they were responsible for taking Naruto in the first place?

Kakashi stayed silent while Tsunade fumed, but he was not gazing off into the distance like he normally would. He seemed troubled, if the slight crease in the visible part of his forehead was anything to go by, or how he was frowning at the ground.

"What?" Tsunade asked with her head in between her hands. Even though she wanted—_needed_—to know if there was anything more, she was not sure if she could handle it.

But Kakashi shook his head.

"Dammit, Kakashi. _WHAT_ is it?!" Tsunade shouted at the man.

Kakashi sighed and gestured that she should be seated. It was then that Tsunade realized that she had toppled over her chair as she shot up. Forcibly calming herself—and wishing Shizune hadn't hidden her whiskey—Tsunade retrieved her chair and sat in it.

In all her years of knowing and employing him, Tsunade had never seen Kakashi look uncomfortable like he did then. It made her all the more trepid as she gestured for him to answer her question.

**Hell**

Sasuke sat on his bed with his Recording King RP-06 lightly strumming its strings. She was his Baby, but also his best kept secret. He almost wished that he could sound-proof his room or another room in the mansion, but he did _not_ want Itachi to know.

Sasuke was able to buy his baby without Itachi noticing when the elder brother was busy with some secret project that he refused to let Sasuke in on. Not that it mattered, Sasuke didn't care. Besides, he was better able to branch out without a watchful eye following him. It was better that way.

But now, Itachi was totally focused on him, and it sucked. Not to mention confusing.

Before, Itachi thought that he needed to be a parent to Sasuke, and it was annoying as fuck. It was like he was trying to replace their parents all together. He'd lecture Sasuke whenever he was called in for Sasuke's behavior just like their father would; except without comparing Sasuke to Itachi. Then he searched for outside help in counselors or therapists like their mother would; except without asking Sasuke periodically what was wrong.

Now, Itachi was acting a little more like his old self, but with more authority. Sasuke did not know what was up with that, but it was confusing! He bet that Itachi would soon be barging into his business and 'checking up on him' and claiming it to be 'Big Brother's Privilege' just like he used to when they were kids. Sasuke was so not looking forwards to that so he needed to make sure that he covered all his bases wherever he went. 'Big Brother's Privilege' was _not_ something Sasuke missed about his old life.

That was why Sasuke was only lightly strumming his Baby's strings instead of outright playing her. He didn't want anyone to find out about her and he wouldn't put it past Itachi to hang outside his room for an opportune moment.

Though, if he really thought about it, there was not a large margin for chance in that department if Sasuke took the time to think about it. After the two had arrived home yesterday, Itachi had immediately gone off to the office. Not that Sasuke cared; Itachi was acting weird during the last part of the car ride. But his interests was piqued during dinner when Itachi was strangely silent—he would usually act like their mother and ask how his day went—until Itachi got a phone call and answered it immediately and practically sped to the study. Naturally, Sasuke tried to follow, but Itachi had snuck off, like the ninja he used to joke he was.

But that didn't change the fact that Itachi might know that Sasuke had tried to follow. And even though Itachi had shut himself away in some Uchiha form of 'guilt' from what Sasuke had observed over mealtimes, there was a chance that Itachi would look for some form of blackmail for payback.

And his Baby didn't deserve that. He had thought about naming her when he bought her, but decided against it. Truth be told, he wasn't the best at naming things, and she was too important to sully with an unoriginal name. So her default nickname was 'Baby', but it was _not_ her actual name.

He wanted to play 'Alone', a lullaby for the acoustic guitar, but he was too paranoid at the moment. So he sighed and but his Baby back into her case and tucked her underneath his bed.

Then Sasuke walked over to his desk and turned on his computer. As soon as everything was running, he logged into Facebook. Out of habit, he checked the Facebook group for Hebi. Usually, there wasn't much on it besides the dates for upcoming concerts and a few pictures Karin had insisted on taking, as self-appointed band publicist.

He was surprised to see that there were more than a few requests for knowing when the next concert was going to be as well as multiple 'Likes' for such questions.

Then Sasuke noticed that there was a message for him in his inbox. Clicking in it, he saw that it was from Suigetsu.

'_DUDE! CHEK THS OUT!'_ Suigetsu had sent, along with a link.

'_What is it?_' Sasuke replied, having been a victim to what he considered 'spam' that Suigetsu found hilarious, like repeated links to an old and archaic video of a monkey sniffing its own butt.

'_KARIN FOUND IT! IT FAN 4UM 4 US!_' Suigetsu wrote back almost instantaneously.

Curious, he clicked on the link. Lo and behold, Suigetsu was not _always_ a lying ass; though he was still and ass. The link WAS a forum about the band.

Their fans were raving about the last concert, especially the scream. Sasuke felt a surge of pride. Of course he knew that it was a success, based upon the immediate reaction, but this was passed his expectations.

The fans were calling it 'indescribable' and comparing it to pre-Halloween haunts run by local bands and affiliates. The kind that was exclusive to this audience.

The praises swelled Sasuke's ego, as well as made him even more determined to do even more for the band's show. That crazy kid's scream was just the beginning; all Sasuke needed to do was figure out what induced those screams and portray it on the stage.

Clicking back onto the Facebook tab, Sasuke saw that Suigetsu had written, '_WEL?_'

'_It's great._' Sasuke wrote back. Proud as he may have been, that was no reason to let Suigetsu—or anyone—know about it. He had a reputation, after all.

But Suigetsu was not deterred. '_IKR? WE GT MRE LYKS!_'

Sasuke internally rolled his eyes at the other's intentional terrible grammar and spelling. But he saw no point in becoming a 'Grammar Nazi', so instead, he looked over to Hebi's page and saw that they indeed had more 'Likes'. It made him smirk a little.

But it also drove him to do more and up their game. '_We need more ideas._'

'_DNT LOOK ME, U IDEA GUY!_' Suigetsu replied. Typical. It looked like Sasuke would have to do everything himself. Again. Those fuckers had better be grateful.

He logged off of Facebook and devoted his attention to the forum, hoping that the fans could give him more insight into what they wanted and what he needed to portray.

After about half an hour of combing through the forum, Sasuke logged off the computer completely. It wasn't giving him anything useful. The fans had unanimously agreed that they loved the fear factor that was added in, and some hinted they wanted more, but gave no suggestions; not that Sasuke would have taken them. Other than that, the fans spoke about the individual members.

The majority of the band member talk was useless. SlashingPain was loved for his eccentric nature, as well as his singing—screaming—talent. There was hardly anything bad said about The Demon, most loving how he was the 'mysterious' one of the group and a few fangirls wanted to jump his pants. That made Sasuke smirk since he knew that Juugo wouldn't know what to do. The only band member who caused a slight 'argument' was HellFire, but it was a useless 'argument' about whether or not she should wear more or less clothing. That made Sasuke roll his eyes, since he knew that if she got her way, Karin would wear less clothing. It was at the insistence of The Demon that Hellfire was at least somewhat modest.

Asides from giving the band an ego-boost—and reassuring Sasuke that he was indeed out of the spotlight, which he was grateful for—the forum was useless.

Sasuke sighed as he flopped onto his black comforter. He pulled out a notebook from underneath his bed, next to his Baby, and a pen so that he could organize his thoughts; something that had stuck with him from his former life when his parents were still alive. It was annoying.

Biting off the pen cap with his teeth, Sasuke titled the new page: 'FEAR HEBI'. Then he began making columns: 'PROPS', 'BAND', 'STAGE', 'THEME', and 'OUTSIDE' for the different ideas. He had written each one as self-explanatory, and 'outside' for stuff he could do, combined with decorating _off_ stage as well.

That was when he hit a metaphorical bump in the road. He did not know where to go from there. Without picking the crazy kid's crazy-ass brain, he had no more ideas.

Sasuke closed the notebook and dropped it on the floor with a slight huff. It looked like he'd have to participate in tomorrow's 'therapy' session after all.

**Hell**

Kakashi walked behind Tsunade as she sped-walked down the hallways; her heels were making a clatter. Not many doctors—if any—wore heels while on the floors because of how often they were waxed, and Kakashi felt the need to warn his superior. However, the clickity-clacking that her heels made had everyone looking up and moving out of their way and thus making the trip go faster, so Kakashi decided to simply walk behind her so he could catch Tsunade in case she fell.

The pair hurried towards the residence ward of the hospital. When the nurse asked them to remove the necessary items—zippers, strings, electronics, etc.—Tsunade started scolding her about recognizing the Head of the hospital.

That was when Kakashi placed a calm, but firm, hand on her shoulder and presented his I.D.

"She's just doing her job," Kakashi explained as he gestured that she should show her I.D. as well.

"Oh, don't use that psychiatrist tone with me," Tsunade hissed as she slammed her identification against the window separating the mini locker-room from the nurse's station, causing the nurse to flinch.

"Then stop acting like a patient," Kakashi gave her a pat on the shoulder. Tsunade scowled at him before—in a _slightly_ calmer tone—barking at the nurse to let them in.

Kakashi knew why his superior was in such a foul mood: it was because he had told her almost everything that Itachi had told him. The only thing that excluded was telling Tsunade exactly who it was that called Kakashi, but he told her what Itachi said that Naruto had endured at Akatsuki's hands.

It was enough to make Kakashi hang up and go directly to Gai's gym—much to the surprise of the owner—and start pummeling any surface he could; including Gai. It was also enough to make Tsunade throw off all her paperwork from her desk and ripping some—Kakashi felt sorry for her assistant—as well as storming off to the residency ward.

As she entered the ward, Kakashi took her arm and forcibly guided her to the staff facility.

Of course, she was angry, "Dammit, Kakashi! I don't have time for one of your time wasting games! I need to see Naruto!"

"And do what?" Kakashi challenged, blocking her exit.

She did not answer him as she was pulling up her sleeve, no doubt to deliver one HELL of a punch.

Eager to not be sent to the other wing of the hospital, Kakashi quickly asked in a demanding voice, "Exactly _what_ are you going to do once you see Naruto? Comfort him? Ask him _why_ he never told you what had happened to him?"

"I—"

"You _can't_ do that!" Kakashi cut Tsunade off.

"Well why not?! He was my patient before he was yours!" Tsunade retorted, but thankfully put her arm down as she turned her back to him.

"Then you should know exactly why you can't let him know that you know what happened to him while he was taken." Kakashi said. He was tempted to place his hands on her shoulder as a gentle way to hold her down, but he knew better than that. His boss was crazy strong when she wanted to be.

"What do you mean?" Tsunade demanded as she turned back around to face him.

Kakashi _wanted_ to tell her it was because she was being rather irrational at the moment, but he also wanted to keep his job. Not to mention keep all his bones non-broken. So he opted for silence for the moment.

"Well?!" Tsunade demanded, practically shouting at him.

Kakashi placed a finger to his lips and whispered, "Patients can hear you."

That sobered Tsunade up right away, or at least, alerted her to the volume of her voice. She mouthed, 'Well?' to Kakashi.

Kakashi continued to whisper, "Think about it: ever since he realized that we weren't working for '_them'_ —"

"—The Akatsuki," Tsunade cut in, thankfully with a whisper.

"—and he started opening up to us and others," Kakashi continued as if his superior hadn't interrupted him, "all he focused on was moving past what had happened to him. There's a _reason_ he never talks about it, and while I do not think it is healthy I also know it _is_ helping him."

"What? Helping him repress those memories? You know as well as I do that repressed memories do not quantify as 'better', _Doctor_ Hatake!" Tsunade heatedly whispered to him.

"Naruto isn't _ready_ to fully process those memories and move past them," Kakashi insisted.

"He's strong, stronger than anyone I've ever met. Especially having been all through _that_! He can get through this." Tsunade asserted as she started to pace a little. It was a telltale sign that she was grasping. Kakashi could tell that she was rationalizing her desire to talk to Naruto about what she had just learned about his past.

Kakashi suddenly wished that Jiraiya was there. He was the only one who could knock sense into her right away, as Kakashi had witnessed a few times whenever the old man would visit the hospital. Everyone else had to hope for the best and avoid getting sent to the main wing of the hospital.

Taking a chance, Kakashi grabbed Tsunade's upper arms and pinned her in a standstill position so he could keep eye contact and avoid getting punched. "Do you remember what Naruto was like when he first arrived?"

Tsunade struggled a little. Thankfully, in her fit of fidgeting as she worried over Naruto, she was entirely preoccupied and not focused on truly escaping. Kakashi's limbs were safe, for now.

"Do you remember how he was catatonic? How he refused to speak to anyone? How the only response we could get was wild fear?" Kakashi continued whispering.

Reluctantly, Tsunade nodded. But she averted his visible eye.

"Are you honestly telling me that you want to put him through that again?" Kakashi asked.

Tsunade's shoulders trembled a little, like Kakashi knew they would. He knew how affected Tsunade was when she was called to be Naruto's original doctor, having heard stories from Jiraiya about how lively the boy was before everything happened. If it was a different situation, Kakashi wouldn't have pulled at the emotional strings, but he couldn't let Tsunade rush off and start talking to Naruto about his trauma.

"Look," Kakashi whispered as he released one arm and placed the other hand on Tsunade's other trembling shoulder, "I know you care about Naruto. You are probably the closest person he has to a family."

Tsunade nodded after a little hesitation. Which was good, Kakashi wanted her to be reminded of their bond that she and Naruto shared.

"But a concerned parent is not the way to help Naruto process these memories," Kakashi explained, loosening his grip for when Tsunade would get defensive.

"What?! Of course it will help! It got him out of his near catatonic state, didn't it?" Tsunade exclaimed in a whisper.

This was part of the reason why Tsunade could not remain as Naruto's primary doctor: because she was too invested in the case. Because of that, Kakashi knew, like any other parent, Tsunade was not able to maintain the bigger picture and continuously focus on treating the immediate problem while at the same time trying to protect the child from any pain. A natural response, and one of entirely good will, but not what Naruto needed at the moment.

"Yes, it did," Kakashi agreed with her, "and it was what helped him move so far."

"What?" Tsunade asked, a little confused, which was exactly what Kakashi wanted.

Kakashi backed up a little so that he was against the door and asked in a business tone of whisper, "Tell me, how would you describe Naruto to somebody who has not met him yet?"

"Well, I, uh," Tsunade stammered, a little thrown off by the sudden shift in conversation. Kakashi was very thankful at the moment that her focus on Naruto was so overbearing that her usual level of analyzing conversations was severely lowered.

"He's a sixteen year old boy who—"

"Exactly!" Kakashi interrupted her.

"What?" Tsunade whispered again, confusion written all over her face.

"He's _sixteen_, Dr. Tsunade," Kakashi intentionally used her title, "and what sixteen year old do _you_ know that would willingly tell their parents about their woes?"

"But this is different—"Tsunade tried to inject.

"—Yes it _is_ different. Very different." Kakashi agreed with her once again. "Most adults haven't gone through even a quarter of what that child has had to endure, and not many adults would want to speak about it at all."

"But Naruto—"

"—is also unique in a sense where he is near desperate to gain our respect," Kakashi explained as he stepped forward to place his hand on Tsunade's shoulder once more, as a slight indicator that the conversation was once again more emotional and personal.

"He has our respect!" Tsunade defended.

"And he believes that still letting the memories haunt him even after a year would lose that respect and instead be given pity. And you know how much he detests pity," Kakashi volunteered, to help steer her in the right direction.

Tsunade nodded, but still seemed troubled. No doubt thinking to herself how to convince Naruto in a somewhat motherly way that he could never lose her respect, but at the same time taking into account how to not make it seem like she pitied him, for Naruto truly abhorred pity.

Kakashi placed another hand on Tsunade's other shoulder and said, "That's why, as part of his treatment, I am in the midst of him trusting me enough to know that '_they_'—"

"The Akatsuki," Tsunade whispered, more to herself than to Kakashi.

"—won't come to get him if he spoke about what had happened '_there_'." Kakashi continued as if his superior hadn't interrupted him.

"Why don't I talk to him about that? Surely if I explain it to him, he would understand." Tsunade tried to reason.

Kakashi slowly shook his head and explained solemnly, "He understand the fear is illogical, but he cannot help it and is a bit ashamed of it. But after what you heard, his fear is very much justified."

Tsunade flinched a little and averted Kakashi's eye.

"We are getting closer, or at least, we _were_ until the nightmares had gotten worse," Kakashi sighed a little.

Tsunade nodded her head absent mindedly. She knew that Naruto was having trouble sleeping, since Kakashi had sought her advice before prescribing Naruto his Ambien CR.

"And now I am in the process of helping Naruto over his paranoia about being taken back '_there_'," Kakashi explained to Tsunade, letting go of her shoulders.

Tsunade looked at him with a critical gaze, "How?" she asked.

Kakashi maintained eye contact and said, "By introducing him to another patient of mine and having them meet for a little while every other weekday."

"And you didn't run this by me?" Tsunade asked in a somewhat aggravated and annoyed tone.

Kakashi shrugged, and said, "I explained everything to Naruto first, who truly wants to recover faster and get over his paranoia. I also have permission from both the other patient's guardian as well as the patient."

Tsunade looked as if she was going to say something when Kakashi injected, "And it is mutually beneficial. Naruto is exposed to more people than just who live and work in the ward, and the patient gets a badly needed wake-up call."

Tsunade still looked troubled, and no longer critical. Meaning that her mind had wandered to what Kakashi had told her about Itachi's phone call.

Kakashi sighed, and placed a hand on her shoulder, explaining, "It is against my professional judgment to bring up what had happened to Naruto to anyone or let him know that you know. It would be detrimental both to your relationship and to his mental health: in the end, it would feed to his paranoia that everyone knows about what had happened to him and want to take him back '_there_' because they work for '_them_'."

"The Akatsuki…" Tsunade whispered to herself again.

"Do you agree, Dr. Tsunade?" Kakashi asked as he stepped away once more.

It took a moment, before Tsunade met his gaze, and said, "Yes, I agree, Dr. Hatake."

Kakashi nodded, then smiled as he suggested, "But why don't we visit him to reassure him that he is not alone here and considered family?"

Tsunade nodded then added, "And that he's safe."

Kakashi wanted to advice against randomly bringing up the hospital's safety measures in case Naruto's paranoid mind jumped to the conclusion that '_they_'—The Akatsuki—had tried to challenge said security measures and all was not well. But Tsunade had already pulled the door open with such a scary ferocity that Kakashi decided against it, trusting that the psychiatrist in Tsunade would know better. But in case she didn't, Kakashi would always use the fallback excuse: Tsunade got drunk again.

As the two walked down the hallways, they encountered Utakata and Gaara, which would surprise Kakashi as neither were particularly social people, but then again, being kidnapped together brought stranger combinations together.

"Good afternoon, boys," Tsunade greeted in her professionally warm manner.

Both shifted their gaze to Tsunade, which for those who weren't used to them could get unnerving. Gaara's green eyes were lined with layers of dark eyeliner to mask the dark circles caused by his insomnia, and Utakata's hair hid half of his face, including one of his eyes.

"Do you need anything?" Tsunade asked. Kakashi knew that normally she would make more of an effort to reach out to all of the residents, but he also knew that Naruto took priority in her mind.

Gaara continued to stare at her while Utakata asked bluntly, "Were you two having sex in the staff bathroom?"

Tsunade spluttered and fought to compose herself. Kakashi, however, simply chuckled and said, "No, no. She just felt the need to pull me into the bathroom for some professional advice on a…private matter."

Utakata raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Tsunade while Gaara did not react. Tsunade, however, nearly shoved Kakashi through the wall.

"Let's go, _Doctor_," she seethed as she stormed forwards, away from the two patients and the man on the ground.

Wordlessly, the two antisocial patients helped Kakashi from the floor.

"Thank you, gentlemen." Kakashi fixed his white coat and advised, "And that…is why one never asks a lady about her business in the bathroom. No matter who she was with." And with that, he followed his superior.

* * *

**And that was the chapter!**

**I AM A CAFFIENE ADDICT! Not too long ago, I felt a little sick to my stomach, and thought that I was being oh so healthy by only drinking water along with eating those healthy foods. But then I was hit by a MASSIVE headache. At first, I had thought that it was because I spent all day watching movies on the couch without much light and hadn't gotten outside for fresh air and natural sunlight, but it kept getting worse, like I-have-a-hangover worse. So I resorted to turning off all the lights, turning off any sounds, and covering my eyes to see if that would help. Then around 11pm, I was told that maybe it was a caffeine headache and I should drink a soda, and I was all 'Really? NOW you tell me?! So close to when the INSOMNIAC **_**should**_** go to bed?' But the headache got worse so I drank a soda—almost threw it up—and pulled an involuntary all-nighter. Oh, caffeine, WHY ARE YOU SO ADDICTING?**

**Anyways, thank you all who favorite/subscribe. And an extra special thank you to those who review. You make my day and you make me smile. And like Sasuke's problem with the mini forum thing, without reviews I have no idea if ya'll like what I write or if you want anything more. Thank you!**


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